Cost-Effective Resource Allocator: A decision support tool for threatened species management

Abstract

Faced with increasing rates of biodiversity loss and modest conservation budgets, it is essential that natural resource managers allocate their financial resources in a cost-effective manner and provide transparent evidence for extra funding. We developed the 'Cost-Effective Resource Allocator', a Microsoft Excel-based decision support tool to assist natural resource managers and policy makers, to prioritize the set of management strategies that maximize the total number of years that a suite of species is expected to persist given a budget constraint. We describe this tool using a case study of four locally threatened species from the Australian Commonwealth National Park of Christmas Island in the Indian Ocean. These include: a native fern (Pneumatopteris truncata), the Christmas Island Red Crab (Gecarcoidea natalis), the Golden Bosun (Phaethon lepturus fulvus), and Abbott's Booby (Papasula abbotti). Under a hypothetical budget of 8,826,000 AUD over ten years, in which all species are considered equal, our tool recommends funding: fern propagation and planting, rat control, cat control, and Yellow Crazy Ant (Anoplolepis gracilipes) survey and control. We found that the cost-effectiveness rankings of these strategies were sensitive to the importance that assessors' assigned to different species. The 'Cost-Effective Resource Allocator' can accommodate input from up to eight assessors, and analyse a maximum of 50 management strategies for 30 species.