Optimal and suboptimal reserve selection algorithms

Abstract

This paper criticises some reserve selection algorithms that have recently been published in Biological Conservation and have rapidly become enshrined in the principle of complementarity. These algorithms are shown, by means of a counter-example, to be suboptimal. Integer programming techniques, available for 30 years, provide optimal solutions to the reserve selection problem. The paper appeals for closer co-operation between biologists and mathematicians in the development of algorithms.