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Maximising return on conservation investment in the conterminous USA
Author(s) -
Withey John C.,
Lawler Joshua J.,
Polasky Stephen,
Plantinga Andrew J.,
Nelson Erik J.,
Kareiva Peter,
Wilsey Chad B.,
Schloss Carrie A.,
Nogeire Theresa M.,
Ruesch Aaron,
Ramos Jorge,
Reid Walter
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
ecology letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 6.852
H-Index - 265
eISSN - 1461-0248
pISSN - 1461-023X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1461-0248.2012.01847.x
Subject(s) - threatened species , species richness , complementarity (molecular biology) , heuristics , environmental resource management , geography , agroforestry , ecology , business , natural resource economics , economics , environmental science , computer science , biology , habitat , genetics , operating system
Efficient conservation planning requires knowledge about conservation targets, threats to those targets, costs of conservation and the marginal return to additional conservation efforts. Systematic conservation planning typically only takes a small piece of this complex puzzle into account. Here, we use a return‐on‐investment ( ROI ) approach to prioritise lands for conservation at the county level in the conterminous USA. Our approach accounts for species richness, county area, the proportion of species' ranges already protected, the threat of land conversion and land costs. Areas selected by a complementarity‐based greedy heuristic using our full ROI approach provided greater averted species losses per dollar spent compared with areas selected by heuristics accounting for richness alone or richness and cost, and avoided acquiring lands not threatened with conversion. In contrast to traditional prioritisation approaches, our results highlight conservation bargains, opportunities to avert the threat of development and places where conservation efforts are currently lacking.