Abstract
AbstractWith many conservation issues requiring urgent action, determining how much data are needed to inform good decisions is a common problem. We examine this problem in relation to the protection of critical habitat, the habitat required for species’ recovery and persistence. The protection of critical habitat is an essential step in the threatened species recovery process. It is also one of the most contentious and protracted decisions faced by environmental agencies. Uncertainty about what constitutes critical habitat, and the challenges of balancing competing societal objectives and of protecting critical habitat once identified are stalling the recovery process. We offer insight into this challenge by investigating how long we can afford to spend identifying critical habitat before opportunities to recover a species are lost. We illustrate our decision model using Canada's threatened northern abalone (Haliotis kamtschatkana). Our method delivers the stopping time at which habitat protection must begin, despite uncertainty, in order to avoid an unacceptable risk of extinction.
Highlights
Protection of critical habitat is a key step in the recovery and conservation of threatened species
We find that irrespective of learning curve type, the time that can be afforded to learning about critical habitat declines rapidly as the level of threat via poaching exceeds 20–30%
Where the rate of learning is rapid initially, and poaching ranges between 10% and 30%, decisions regarding protection of critical habitat should be made early, whereas when the learning is slower, more time is required (10–14 years) to learn the equivalent amount about critical habitat
Summary
Protection of critical habitat is a key step in the recovery and conservation of threatened species. The critical habitat of the woodland Caribou (Rangifer tarandus) overlaps with rich petroleum and forestry resources in Northern Canada (Schneider et al 2010); the critical habitat of Canada’s southern resident Killer whale population (Orcinus orca) is a lucrative commercial and recreational salmon fishing ground (Ford et al 2009). These areas of land and sea are not just critical habitat for threatened species but they are highly contested areas for resource extraction, development, and recreation.
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