Methods for prioritizing protected areas using individual and aggregate rankings

Fabio Carvalho,Steven M Goodman,Achille P Raselimanana,Adam D Gordon,Voahangy Soarimalala,Marie Jeanne Raherilalao,Gabriel U Yesuf,Kerry A Brown

doi:10.1017/s0376892920000090

Abstract

AbstractDespite their legal protection status, protected areas (PAs) can benefit from priority ranks when ongoing threats to their biodiversity and habitats outpace the financial resources available for their conservation. It is essential to develop methods to prioritize PAs that are not computationally demanding in order to suit stakeholders in developing countries where technical and financial resources are limited. We used expert knowledge-derived biodiversity measures to generate individual and aggregate priority ranks of 98 mostly terrestrial PAs on Madagascar. The five variables used were state of knowledge (SoK), forest loss, forest loss acceleration, PA size and relative species diversity, estimated by using standardized residuals from negative binomial models of SoK regressed onto species diversity. We compared our aggregate ranks generated using unweighted averages and principal component analysis (PCA) applied to each individual variable with those generated via Markov chain (MC) and PageRank algorithms. SoK significantly affected the measure of species diversity and highlighted areas where more research effort was needed. The unweighted- and PCA-derived ranks were strongly correlated, as were the MC and PageRank ranks. However, the former two were weakly correlated with the latter two. We recommend using these methods simultaneously in order to provide decision-makers with the flexibility to prioritize those PAs in need of additional research and conservation efforts.

Highlights

Conservation triage is the process of prioritizing efforts to ensure effective allocation of scarce resources in order to maximize conservation returns (Bottrill et al 2008)
The generally accepted strategy for promoting biodiversity conservation is the establishment of protected areas (PAs) (Kullberg et al 2019), but their performance is contingent on the amounts of financial and technical resources allocated to ensure effective management (Barnes et al 2018)
We show that employing different methods and including state of knowledge (SoK) in the estimation of species diversity have significant effects on the ranking of PAs, and we discuss the merits of using individual- and aggregate-based rankings when prioritizing PAs for conservation under limited financial and technical resources

Summary

Introduction

Conservation triage is the process of prioritizing efforts to ensure effective allocation of scarce resources (e.g., financial, knowledge) in order to maximize conservation returns (Bottrill et al 2008). The generally accepted strategy for promoting biodiversity conservation is the establishment of protected areas (PAs) (Kullberg et al 2019), but their performance is contingent on the amounts of financial and technical resources allocated to ensure effective management (Barnes et al 2018). PAs should be established in order to promote biodiversity, enhance ecosystem services and safeguard features of particular conservation value within landscapes (Bertzky et al 2012). They are often established in landscapes with the lowest opportunity costs (Joppa & Pfaff 2009). Prioritization of PAs within existing networks will be necessary at an international scale given continued and intense human pressure on protected land (Jones et al 2018)

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