Open AccessPriorities and paradigms: directions in threatened species recovery
Author(s) -
Briggs Sue V.
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
conservation letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.153
H-Index - 79
ISSN - 1755-263X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1755-263x.2009.00055.x
Subject(s) - threatened species , population , conservation dependent species , endangered species , ecology , business , environmental resource management , biology , natural resource economics , near threatened species , habitat , environmental science , economics , demography , sociology
Recovering threatened species is a key challenge for conservation managers, policy makers, and researchers. This article describes a practical framework for assigning priorities for recovery of threatened species according to cost‐effectiveness of recovery strategies for species groups. The framework has the following steps: (1) determine the conservation goal—persistence in the wild of the largest number of threatened species with the funds available; (2) assign threatened species to species recovery groups according to their characteristics and threats—small‐population species that require actions at sites and declining‐population species that require actions across landscapes; (3) identify the recovery strategies and their component actions for the species groups; (4) cost the recovery strategies for the species groups; (5) determine the cost‐effectiveness of the recovery strategies for the species groups—the number of species recovered divided by the cost of the strategies; (6) assign priorities to the recovery strategies according to their cost‐effectiveness; (7) allocate funds to the recovery strategies that maximize the number of threatened species recovered for the funds available; and (8) undertake the funded recovery strategies and actions. The framework is illustrated with an example.