Conservation Costs Research Articles

Conservative Care Cost Analysis of Patients of Long Bone Fracture in Emergency Room. A Review to See the Sufficiency of Health Insurance Costs

Long bones are bones that include the humerus, radius, ulna, femur, tibia and fibula. Aside from fibula, the main function of long bones is as the main skeleton in movement. Therefore, whenever there is a fracture in the long bone, the ability to move will be lost.The occurrence of this long bone fracture itself is still a global problem because the number of events is still quite large. This is in line with the increase in socioeconomic status and the incidence of traffic accidents which is one of the causes of fractures.
 METHOD
 This study is a prospective study to determine the magnitude of the cost of treatment conservatively in cases of long bone fractures in RSUD dr. Soetomo. The study design used was a prospective cohort. The sample size used in this study was determined by consecutive sampling, ie patients who met the inclusion criteria in the period May - August 2017.
 RESULTS
 From the observations for four months from May 2017 - August 2017 at Emergency Room Soetomo General Hospital, found 77 patients with long bone fractures that were casted. Of these patients, 38 patients were placed in a slab, 39 patients were placed in a circular cast. Among the 39 people, 17 patients were excluded according to the exclusion criteria and 22 patients were included as the study sample according to the inclusion criteria. By using a statistical test using paired sample T test with a value of α = 0.05, a significance of 0.025 was obtained. Because the significance value is 0.025 <0.05 (α).
 DISCUSSION
 From the resultsa difference between the BPJS rate of installing circular cast on long bone fractures with the real cost of installing circular cast on long bone fractures. In addition, from the value of the mean we get that the average value of the BPJS rate is greater than the real cost value, which means we can conclude that the BPJS cost can cover the cost of conservative therapy in cases of long bone fractures.
 CONCLUSION
 In the economic aspect, the longer the length of stay means the higher the costs that must be paid by the patient (the payer) and accepted by the hospital. This only applies to real tariffs, whereas to INACBG's long or short length of stay does not affect the cost.

Evaluation of Water Resources Utilization Effectiveness Based on Eco-economics Theory

Chen, Y.; Li, Z.; Li, P.; Gao, H.; Jin, T.; Du, P., and Zhang, Y., 2020. Evaluation of water resources utilization effectiveness based on eco-economics theory. In: Bai, X. and Zhou, H. (eds.), Advances in Water Resources, Environmental Protection, and Sustainable Development. Journal of Coastal Research, Special Issue No. 115, pp. 148-150. Coconut Creek (Florida), ISSN 0749-0208.Facing the increasingly severe water resources situation, how to manage water resources reasonably and effectively, and improve the utilization efficiency and efficiency of water resources is an inevitable requirement for the overall development of China's economic and social water resources ecological environment system. Based on this, the effect of water resources utilization is evaluated based on the theory of ecological economics. The SVM correlation model algorithm is proposed. The dynamic analysis and simulation evaluation are carried out through SD simulation technology, and the total system flow diagram of regional water resources utilization evaluation is established. Based on the maximum flow algorithm, the incentive degree of water resources ecological compensation mechanism is studied. InVEST model and household survey are used to calculate the new water conservation and land use conversion costs. After considering the risk of water resources ecosystem loss, the welfare cost method is adopted. On the county scale, the potential objects of ecological compensation for water resources in the Weihe River Basin are identified. The results show that there are obvious spatial differences in water resources ecological compensation efficiency coefficients in Gansu section of Weihe River Basin. Weiyuan County with the highest runoff is 1.26, Gangu County with the lowest runoff is 0.46. The efficiency of the project can be increased by 40.54% after spatial screening of regional compensation objects. Through the evaluation of water resources utilization and water resources policy simulation, it provides a reference for the coordinated development of water resources and social economy in China.

Unseen Costs: The Direct and Indirect Impact of U.S. Immigration Policies on Child and Adolescent Health and Well-Being.

Shifts in migration and border control policies may increase the likelihood of trauma exposure related to child–parent separation and result in costs to the health system and society. In the present study, we estimated direct and indirect costs per child as well as overall cohort costs of border control policies on migrant children and adolescents who were separated from their parents, detained, and placed in the custody of the United States following the implementation of the 2018 Zero Tolerance Policy. Economic modeling techniques, including a Markov process and Monte Carlo simulation, based on data from the National Child Traumatic Stress Network's Core Data Set (N = 458 migrant youth) and published studies were used to estimate economic costs associated with three immigration policies: No Detention, Family Detention, and Zero Tolerance. Clinical evaluation data on mental health symptoms and disorders were used to estimate the initial health state and risks associated with additional trauma exposure for each scenario. The total direct and indirect costs per child were conservatively estimated at $33,008, $33,790, and $34,544 after 5 years for No Detention, Family Detention, and Zero Tolerance, respectively. From a health system perspective, annual estimated spending increases ranged from $1.5 million to $14.9 million for Family Detention and $2.8 million to $29.3 million for Zero Tolerance compared to baseline spending under the No Detention scenario. Border control policies that increase the likelihood of child and adolescent trauma exposure are not only morally troubling but may also create additional economic concerns in the form of direct health care costs and indirect societal costs.

Consumer’s food waste in different restaurants configuration: A comparison between different levels of incentive and interaction

Reducing food waste is necessary for achieving healthy diets and sustainable food systems due to its negative impacts on resource conservation, food security, and environmental, social and economic costs. This paper aim is to quantify the amount and types of food that is wasted by the consumers in different restaurant configurations. The second aim is to understand the reasons which lead them to waste food and the greenhouse gas emissions associated with the waste. To fulfil the aims, a mixed methodology was used, including primary data collection in restaurants for the quantification of food waste, interviewing consumers and staff, along with calculating the environmental impact from the waste using life cycle assessment. The results show that different incentives and levels of interaction in consumer’s choice of food types exert influence on plate food waste. When incentive and interaction are low, the amount of food waste is larger. It is the case of a la carte restaurants. The best performance in the restaurant categories was when both incentive and level of interaction were higher. Buffet where the consumers pay by weight, therefore, is the configuration that generates less food waste on the consumer's plate. The main wasted products are rice and beans, followed by beef, and then other carbohydrates. The life cycle assessment indicated a carbon footprint varying from 128 to 324 g CO2 eq./plate from the wasted food. The result of the interviews showed that the food waste on the plate is not visible to consumers, since in the majority of cases, they believe that their food waste on the plate in the day of the observation was an exception. There is a large potential to reduce food waste by giving consumers the possibility to influence the serving to get the right portion size. Also, to further emphasize this behaviour by creating incentives for consumers only to serve as much food as they actually eat.

Graphics Processing Unit-Accelerated Semiempirical Born Oppenheimer Molecular Dynamics Using PyTorch.

A new open-source high-performance implementation of Born Oppenheimer molecular dynamics based on semiempirical quantum mechanics models using PyTorch called PYSEQM is presented. PYSEQM was designed to provide researchers in computational chemistry with an open-source, efficient, scalable, and stable quantum-based molecular dynamics engine. In particular, PYSEQM enables computation on modern graphics processing unit hardware and, through the use of automatic differentiation, supplies interfaces for model parameterization with machine learning techniques to perform multiobjective training and prediction. The implemented semiempirical quantum mechanical methods (MNDO, AM1, and PM3) are described. Additional algorithms include a recursive Fermi-operator expansion scheme (SP2) and extended Lagrangian Born Oppenheimer molecular dynamics allowing for rapid simulations. Finally, benchmark testing on the nanostar dendrimer and a series of polyethylene molecules provides a baseline of code efficiency, time cost, and scaling and stability of energy conservation, verifying that PYSEQM provides fast and accurate computations.

Susceptibility assessment of human–leopard conflict in Aravalli landscape of Haryana using geospatial techniques

Increasing global population pressure and related proliferations in demands for resources which eventually resulted in sensitive pressure on regions covering valued biodiversity. Human–wildlife conflict is one of the most common issues in conservation, encircling a huge diversity of circumstances and species. However, reasons of conflict are frequently more complex than predicted and issues which can affect human behaviour in these circumstances need to be implicit. The Leopard (Panthera pardus fusca) populations are being isolated in their micro habitat due to landscape fragmentation and increasing anthropogenic pressure over the India. Therefore, encounters between Leopards, livestock and humans are increasing in many areas, rising concerns about the costs of Leopards conservation. The present study aimed to assess of human–leopard conflict in the Aravalli landscape of Haryana (Gurugram, Mewat and Faridabad districts), India. The study was undertaken to investigate the ecological aspects of human–leopard conflict through spatial characteristics and dynamics of such conflict. In the present study, GPS field survey and mapping were done for the conflict’s sites in three districts of Haryana by the reference of newspaper articles, news reports and internet sources. Afterwards, GPS field survey was carried out to verify conflict sites in the landscape. To understand ecological aspects of human–leopard conflict, the result shows that forest cover in the Aravalli landscape has been decreased continuously from 1996 to 2018. It has been also recorded that barren rocky land has been reduced in the given time period. In contrast, agriculture and settlement have been increased dramatically from 1996 to 2018. The change matrix analyses show that forest cover and barren rocky land has been converted in agriculture land as well as human settlements. In the study area, it has also been found that water bodies have also been declined. For Susceptibility zonation, 10 parameters were selected and prepared by help of literature review and validated using linear support vector machine model. Maxent model was run for 30-m grain size and output suggested a susceptibility zone for human–leopard conflict in the Gurugram, Faridabad and Mewat. The study concludes that the human–leopard conflicts were mostly recorded in the area which has been converted from forest land to agriculture or settlements and they were found to be most susceptible. The human–leopard conflicts were also recorded at the edge of forested land in study area.

Payments for agrobiodiversity conservation services: An overview of Latin American experiences, lessons learned and upscaling challenges

Many developing countries face a major challenge today: how to safeguard the biodiversity maintained in the fields of the rural poor - which constitute a national and global public good - whilst meeting those same people's development needs and rights? A solution to this dilemma has thus been sought in adapting the design and implementation of Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES) concepts to the conservation of agrobiodiversity.Here we review the application of nine such Payments for Agrobiodiversity Conservation (PACS) schemes that have been applied to date in four Latin American countries over the period 2010–2018. These covered 130 threatened varieties across a number of major food crops, and involved over 100 farming communities and 1,100 farmers (45 % of which were women). Conservation service offers were received through a competitive tender mechanism. Average bid offers revealed high heterogeneity, varying between US$675/ha. to ten times as much.In relation to issues identified as key to PES, such as spatial targeting, differentiated payments and conditionality, the underlying design of the PACS schemes may be considered solid. PACS-related prioritisation processes allow for the a priori identification of sites with high ecosystem service densities and high threat levels. The use of competitive tenders permits accounting for cost heterogeneity in the provision of conservation services and for payments to be differentiated. Conditionality is strong.In terms of implementation, a “back of the envelope” calculation based on the results of the competitive tenders suggests that conservation costs are modest. For a priority conservation portfolio of 100 varieties (which may be from different crops) each with a target area of five hectares, costs would amount to just under US$860,000 over twenty years or US$70,000 p.a. at a 5 % discount rate. The small-scale and one-off nature of the interventions realised to date, along with threatened crop variety seed availability constraints, have however meant that environmental effectiveness has been incomplete in the short-term (area cultivated with specific threatened varieties increased, but still below the “not at risk” threshold). The establishment of systematic monitoring systems is required to determine longer-term impacts and inform more regular PACS interventions within a dynamically evolving systems context.

What Drives the Erasure of Protected Areas? Evidence from across the Brazilian Amazon

Protected areas (PAs) are a widely used strategy for conserving forests and ecosystem services. When PAs succeed in deterring economic activities that degrade forests, the impacts include more forest yet less economic gain. These economic opportunity costs of conservation lead actors with economic interests to resist new PAs, driving their sites away from profitable market centers and towards areas featuring lower opportunity costs. Further, after PAs are created, economic actors may want PA downgrading, downsizing, and degazettement (collectively PADDD). We examine reductions in PAs' spatial extent – downsizings (partial erasures) and degazettements (complete erasures) − that presumably reduce protection. Using data for the entire Brazilian Amazon from PADDDtracker.org, our empirical analyses explore whether size reductions from 2006 to 2015 resulted from bargaining between development and conservation. We find that the risks of PA size reductions are raised by: lower travel costs (as implied by distances to roads and cities), which affect economic gains and enforcement; greater PA size, which affects enforcement; and more prior internal deforestation, which lowers the impacts of size reductions. These dynamics of protection offer insights on the potentially conflicting factors that lead to PA size reductions, with implications for policymaking to enhance PA effectiveness and permanence.

‘Warehouse’ or research centre? Analyzing public preferences for conservation, pre-breeding and characterization activities at the Czech genebank

Genebanks are places where crop varieties are stored, catalogued, and made available for redistribution so that their genetic diversity is not lost. Besides conserving cultivated crop diversity, some genebanks also conserve the wild relatives of crops, which can contain useful traits not present in the domesticated genepool, and can undertake other activities to make genetic diversity more usable in breeding, such as characterization and evaluation efforts and pre-breeding. We present here the results of a stated preference survey that elicits the preferences of the general Czech public for the conservation of additional wheat and wild wheat varieties, characterization and evaluation activities, and pre-breeding efforts. Czech citizens were asked whether they would be willing to make a one-time voluntary payment to finance specific, 10-year conservation programmes at the Czech genebank. Using a sequence of single-bounded dichotomous choice questions, we estimate a random effects probit model to analyze preferences for such conservation programmes. We find that Czech respondents had a strong preference for characterization and evaluation, and while they do not value pre-breeding, they are willing to pay for the conservation of additional wild wheat accessions (though not for cultivated wheat varieties). In aggregate, the estimated benefits are substantial compared to the current costs of conservation. The stated preference approach of this paper permits the estimation of the social value of crop diversity conservation and associated investments in research, including non-market values. Our results provide information of potential use for policymakers in relation to setting priorities for the funding of agricultural research.

Association of Deprescribing With Reduction in Mortality and Hospitalization: A Pragmatic Stepped-Wedge Cluster-Randomized Controlled Trial

ObjectivesDeprescribing has gained awareness recently, but the clinical benefits observed from randomized trials are limited. The aim of this study was to examine the effectiveness of a pharmacist-led 5-step team-care deprescribing intervention in nursing homes to reduce falls (fall risks and fall rates). Secondary aims include reducing mortality, number of hospitalized residents, pill burden, medication cost, and assessing the deprescribing acceptance rate. DesignPragmatic multicenter stepped-wedge cluster randomized controlled trial. Setting and ParticipantsResidents across 4 nursing homes in Singapore were included if they were aged 65 years and above, and taking 5 or more medications. MethodsThe intervention involved a 5-step deprescribing intervention, which involved a multidisciplinary team-care medication review with pharmacists, physicians, and nurses (in which pharmacists discussed with other team members the feasibility of deprescribing and implementation using the Beers and STOPP criteria) or to an active waitlist control for the first 3 months. ResultsTwo hundred ninety-five residents from 4 nursing homes participated in the study from February 2017 to March 2018. At 6 months, the deprescribing intervention did not reduce falls. Subgroup analysis showed that intervention reduced fall risk scores within the deprescribing-naïve group by 0.18 (P = .04). Intervention was associated with a reduction in mortality [hazard ratio (HR) 0.16, 95% confidence interval 0.07, 0.41; P < .001] and number of hospitalized residents (HR 0.16, 95% CI 0.10, 0.26; P < .001). Pre-post analysis witnessed a reduction in pill burden at the end of the study, and a conservative daily cost saving estimate of US$11.42 (SG$15.65) for the study population. Approximately three-quarters of deprescribing interventions initiated by the pharmacists were accepted by the physicians. Conclusions and ImplicationsMultidisciplinary medication review–directed deprescribing was associated with reductions in mortality and number of hospitalized residents in nursing homes and should be considered for all nursing home residents.

What are the benefits of delisting endangered species and who receives them?: Lessons from the gray wolf recovery in Greater Yellowstone

This paper uses a spatial predator-prey model to provide insights into the complex and politically charged management of species recently removed from the federal endangered species list. The model is motivated by the recently delisted gray wolf with spatiotemporal dynamics between elk, wolves, hunters, cattle ranchers, and the tourism industry in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. State wildlife managers set hunting rates for elk and wolves to maximize the discounted net benefits from tourism, hunting, cattle grazing, and non-use values that accrue to the area while ensuring a minimum viable wolf population meant to prevent extinction. We show that the cost of wolf conservation paid by residents and visitors to the area falls substantially after delisting. These costs savings arise by taking advantage of differences in habitats and economies across the region resulting in an unequal spatial distribution of wolves and of wolf hunting opportunities. The cost savings from delisting are reduced when a more even distribution of wolves and hunting opportunity is achieved, highlighting a bioeconomic equity-efficiency tradeoff. Finally, we show that current livestock compensation programs cannot decrease the discrepancy between state and federal management following delisting but propose a federally-funded alternative that can.

Non-material costs of wildlife conservation to local people and their implications for conservation interventions

In assessment of costs (and benefits) of wildlife conservation, conventional economic valuation frameworks may inadequately address various non-tangible values and neglect social, cultural and political contexts of resources and their use. Correspondingly, there seems to be much more focus on quantifying the economic, material benefits and costs of wildlife conservation than the non-material aspects that also affect human well-being. In addition, current research on the costs of wildlife conservation tends to be discipline-focused which constrains comparability, often causing conceptual ambiguity. This paper is an attempt to address this ambiguity. While there is growing acknowledgement of the material costs of wildlife conservation, we contend that employing a broader, composite social well-being approach may provide better conceptual insights on—and practical options for—managing various non-material impacts of wildlife conservation for local people. Non-material impacts such as negative physical or psychological experiences, trauma, feelings of fear and anxiety cannot directly be measured by or converted to money but such impacts still lead to human ill-being. Thus, taking these impacts into account is critical for the broader sustainability of wildlife conservation, making understanding and addressing them a key socio-ecological issue.

Science-to-conservation disconnections in Borneo and British Columbia

Borneo differs fundamentally from Canada, but reflections on the struggles to improve the fates of its tropical rain forests may resonate with people engaged in the same struggles on the other side of the Pacific. I frame these reflections around the question of why my efforts as a researcher in Borneo failed to cause a change from predatory logging of old growth to conservation through improved forest management. Perhaps my most fundamental mistake was unwillingness to recognize the immense profitability of forest liquidation through multiple-premature re-entry logging, especially when followed by conversion to plantations of African oil palm or Australian acacias. Superimposed on the high opportunity costs of conservation were governance failures that diminished the effectiveness of policies set by government as well as those set by certifiers of responsible management. Conservation of the mostly remote, flooded, and steep hinterlands still covered by forest will benefit from acknowledgment of the internationally recognized intrinsic land rights of Borneo’s indigenous peoples combined with full economic cost accounting of the consequences of forest degradation and conversion. Given the global importance of old growth in Borneo, Canada, and elsewhere, global funding for conservation should be made available with safeguards such as UNESCO Biosphere designations.

A level set redistancing algorithm for simulation of two-phase flow

Incompressible two-phase flow involving interface evolution was studied using a level set method. To maintain the level set function as a signed distance function from the zero level set and meanwhile preserve the mass conservation, a level set redistancing algorithm of level set methods was developed. Important to the above level set redistancing algorithm was a new idea that keeps the zero level set almost unchanged during the redistancing process. Protection of the zero level set is introduced in the redistancing process to ensure that the interface does not change, thus reducing or even avoiding mass errors induced. Accuracy of this algorithm was verified in terms of such benchmark problems as deforming vortex and Zalesak’s disk problems. Numerical examples including 2D and 3D dam-break and 3D single bubble rising simulations are presented to validate the present level set method. Mass conservation and computational costs involving complicated interfacial flow structures are also presented.

Evaluating and expanding the European Union's protected-area network toward potential post-2020 coverage targets.

The Convention on Biological Diversity's (CBD) strategic plan will expire in 2020, but biodiversity loss is ongoing. Scientists call for more ambitious targets in the next agreement. The nature-needs-half movement, for example, has advocated conserving half of Earth to solve the biodiversity crisis, which has been translated to protecting 50% of each ecoregion. We evaluated current protection levels of ecoregions in the territory of one of the CBD's signatories, the European Union (EU). We also explored the possible enlargement of the Natura 2000 network to implement 30% or 50% ecoregion coverage in the EU member states' protected area (PA) network. Based on the most recent land-use data, we examined whether ecoregions have enough natural area left to reach such high coverage targets. We used a spatially explicit mixed integer programing model to estimate the least-cost expansion of the PA network based on 3 scenarios that put different emphasis on total conservation cost, ecological representation of ecosystems, or emphasize an equal share of the burden among member states. To realize 30% and 50% ecoregion coverage, the EU would need to add 6.6% and 24.2%, respectively, of its terrestrial area to its PA network. For all 3 scenarios, the EU would need to designate most recommended new PAs in seminatural forests and other semi- or natural ecosystems. Because 15 ecoregions did not have enough natural area left to implement the ecoregion-coverage targets, some member states would also need to establish new PAs on productive land, allocating the largest share to arable land. Thirty percent ecoregion coverage was met by protecting remaining natural areas in all ecoregions except 3, where productive land would also need to be included. Our results support discussions of higher ecoregions protection targets for post-2020 biodiversity frameworks.

Thermoeconomic analysis for determining optimal insulation thickness for new composite prefabricated wall block as an external wall member in buildings

The importance of energy conservation and energy costs is evident. Buildings play very significant roles in mitigating these issues. Therefore, focuses on the thermal performance of building and envelope design, has grown in recent years. The purpose of this study is to present a new and innovative design of composite prefabricated wall block (CPWB) and determine the optimum insulation thickness (OIT) of CPWB as an external wall member using the degree-day (DD) method with the life cycle cost (LCC) analysis for the provinces of Ardabil, Tehran and Khuzestan in Iran. Although Iran has been selected as case study, it can be generalized to other countries due to the diversity of geographic latitude and longitude of selected cities. These provinces are located in the cold, semi-arid, and warm climate regions, respectively. The components of the studied blocks are produced separately and different materials can be used in the production process of the blocks. As the insulation material, the unique combination of polystyrene, polyurethane and air-gap were used in this study. The results, based on heating and cooling, showed that the optimum thickness increases with the warming of atmospheric conditions which leads to growth in cost saving and reducing the payback period.

What does it cost to ensure salt marsh migration? Using hedonic modeling to inform cost-effective conservation

The preservation of salt marshes under rapid sea-level rise (SLR) typically requires the conservation of marsh transgression zones—undeveloped uplands onto which marshes can migrate. Optimal planning for conservation of this type requires information on the expected benefit of marsh conservation and the cost of land suitable for marsh migration in particular areas. While information is available on marsh benefits within the literature, prior research provides little insight on associated land conservation costs. The coastal hedonic pricing literature focuses primarily on developed land, and there are no models designed to predict the cost of conserving land suitable for marsh migration. This paper develops a hedonic property value model to predict cost and explore price patterns associated with purchases of undeveloped land suitable for salt marsh migration under SLR. The model is illustrated using a case study from the Eastern Shore of Virginia, with a dataset consisting of open-market sales of undeveloped land from 2014 to 2017. Particular attention is paid to characteristics that determine marsh migration potential such as coastal distance, elevation and connectivity. Results demonstrate the insight for conservation planning that can be provided by models of this type and the errors associated with the use of simplified proxies to predict conservation costs of land suitable for marsh migration.

How does environmental regulation promote technological innovations in the industrial sector? Evidence from Chinese provincial panel data

Promoting technological innovations by environmental regulation is one of the essential means to achieve green transformation. This study investigates the effect of environmental regulation on technological innovations based on the provincial panel data of industrial sectors in China during the years 2005–2015. The two-way fixed-effect panel data model is used to investigate the marginal and heterogeneous impacts empirically. Results indicate a U-shaped relationship between environmental regulation and technological innovations. In the short-term, environmental regulation has an “offsetting effect” on the research and innovation capacity of China's industrial sector. However, with the deepening of environmental regulation, it forces the industry to reduce the cost of pollution control by improving technological innovation capacity, thus creating a “compensation effect”. Results also show that environmental regulation policies changed the location and industry selection of foreign capital, which weakened the positive effect of FDI on technological innovations, indicating the “pollution shelter” effect. From the perspective of different types of enterprises, due to the higher cost of energy conservation and emission reduction, environmental regulation is detrimental to the technological innovations of state-owned enterprises. In particular, we find that industries with a higher degree of market competition and higher human capital investment tend to have stronger technological innovation capabilities.

Conserving ecosystem services and biodiversity: Measuring the tradeoffs involved in splitting conservation budgets

Conservation organizations increasingly target ecosystem services alongside biodiversity, yet it remains unclear whether ecosystem service goals reinforce or detract from those for biodiversity. We assess tradeoffs between biodiversity and ecosystem services and test the hypothesis that the severity of this tradeoff is a function the breadth of taxa and ecosystem services targeted. We identify optimal conserved lands networks for four taxa, four ecosystem services, and all possible combinations of each. We then assess the amount of biodiversity and ecosystem service contained within each network, its conservation cost, and its overlap with every other network. We find that overlap varies widely across individual ecosystem services and taxa, and that networks targeting multiple services contain more biodiversity than networks targeting a single service. Safeguarding a given amount of ecosystem service and biodiversity through joint optimization requires a 13% increase in conservation budgets relative to achieving targets for biodiversity alone, and results in a 22% budget savings relative to achieving targets for each though separate efforts. We conclude that including ecosystem services goals alongside those for biodiversity is likely have a net positive impact on biodiversity, especially when a broad suite of services are targeted.

Selecting priority areas for the conservation of endemic trees species and their ecosystems in Madagascar considering both conservation value and vulnerability to human pressure

Madagascar is one of the most biodiverse countries in Africa, due to its level of endemism and species diversity. However, the pressure of human activities threatens the last patches of natural vegetation in the country and conservation decisions are undertaken with limited data availability. In this study, we use free online datasets to generate distribution models of 1539 endemic trees and prioritise for conservation and restoration considering threat, alongside conservation value and cost. Threats considered include illegal logging, forest degradation and agriculture or slash and burns activities. We found that the areas with the highest potential concentration of species are along the north and south-east of the country where more than 400 tree species can be found. Most scenarios identify a common conservation and restoration priority area along the north east of the country. Our findings guide managers, conservation organizations or governments in decisions about where to invest their limited conservation resources.