Conservation Planning Process Research Articles

Identifying complementary conservation and restoration priority areas for plant species

The coverage of protected areas (PAs) remains far from the Kunming-Montreal target and degraded ecosystems are greatly limiting the conservation efficiency of PAs. Therefore, this paper proposes a method to identify conservation and restoration priority areas to supplement existing PAs. A case study was conducted focusing on Yunnan, southwestern China, which intersects with three world biodiversity hotspots. First, the spatial ranges for 3768 representative conservation plant species were mapped using species distribution models. Subsequently, planning units were classified into three restorability categories, namely no-need restoration, potentially restorable and non-restorable units, according to land cover changes between 2000 and 2020. Then, conservation and restoration priority areas were identified by applying a two-step systematic conservation planning process. Finally, replacement cost analysis was applied to compare the effectiveness of existing PAs and the overall 30 % priority areas. Northwestern, southwestern, and southeastern Yunnan have high biodiversity conservation values. Especially in eastern and southeastern Yunnan, large amounts of restoration priority areas were identified. Conservation and restoration priority areas account for 15.80 % and 3.69 % of Yunnan's land, respectively. Compared to existing PAs, conservation priority areas can increase the number of species covered from 2461 to 3277, and further to 3566 when including restoration priority areas. Compared to existing PAs, the mean species coverage in the overall 30 % priority areas has increased from 27.28 % to 72.69 %. Notably, 12.86 % of existing PAs were identified as restoration priority areas. This study indicates that in addition to conservation measures, implementing restoration strategies in high conservation-value areas is equally important.

Mapping human‐carnivore coexistence: approaches to integrating anthropogenic influences on carnivore distribution and connectivity modelling

AbstractInterdisciplinary approaches to modelling human‐wildlife coexistence have gained much attention in recent years, especially regarding carnivores which are subject to historical human persecution and dynamic attitudes and cultural values. Accordingly, there have been many attempts to gain insights into anthropogenic influences on carnivores through the use of species distribution models and connectivity analyses. However, there have been no global reviews on how anthropogenic influences are incorporated into such models. We conducted a literature review of global terrestrial carnivore species distribution and connectivity studies from 1995 to 2021 to evaluate the type of measure, frequency of use and spatial scale of the predictor variables used to describe environmental conditions and assess anthropogenic influences in such predictive models. We evaluated 2495 variables from 263 carnivore distribution and connectivity studies and found that variables used to describe environmental conditions are four times more commonly used than those used to assess anthropogenic influences on carnivores. However, the number of anthropogenic covariates used in carnivore distribution and connectivity studies has increased by 4.7% per year, and the spatial resolution of those covariates has simultaneously decreased by 7.6% per year. We observed that anthropogenic covariates were used more in studies occurring in the global north and for larger‐bodied carnivores (>15 kg), suggesting the need for better integration of anthropogenic metrics into predictive models more widely and for smaller‐bodied carnivores. To help guide and advance the further use of sociological data into predictive spatial models for carnivores, we propose a framework that emphasizes integration of sociological methodologies and data sources ranging from exploratory expert elicitation to targeted focus group interviews at multiple phases in the conservation planning process.

Conservation as a Driving Force for the Sustainability of Yeşilburç Village Cultural Heritage Values

Historical environments and cultural assets, which are important components of these environments, carry values that are transferred from generation to generation and provide a link between the past and the present. Today, globalization and urbanization, which pose a significant threat to this invaluable heritage, also threaten rural settlements, where place-specific values are relatively better preserved than in urban centers. The protection of the heritage values of historical environments as a whole and the importance of protection have also been revealed by international treaties. This article focuses on Yeşilburç Village in Niğde Province, one of the villages built by Greeks migrating to Greece and later inhabited by Muslims migrating from Greece, following the forced migration agreement signed between the Turkish and Greek governments in 1924. Yeşilburç historical settlement was declared an urban conservation area in 2019, and a conservation plan is under construction in line with the current legal regulations in Turkey. In this study, it is claimed that the conservation works are a driving force and opportunity for the sustainability of the settlement, and the importance of the documentation studies carried out within the scope of the planning studies is emphasized. The data presented in this study is based on fieldwork and archival research conducted during the conservation planning process and assesses the challenges encountered in the process, the existing and potential values of the site, and the threats and opportunities that may hinder conservation. The key and triggering role of conservation and its potential resource quality is indispensable in maintaining the original values of the Yeşilburç settlement, which has a rich historical past, and new research will strengthen this situation.

Predicting Habitat Suitability and Adaptation Strategies of an Endangered Endemic Species, Camellia luteoflora Li ex Chang (Ericales: Theaceae) under Future Climate Change

Camellia luteoflora Li ex Chang is an endangered plant endemic to the East Asian flora with high ornamental value as well as phylogenetic and floristic research value. Predicting the impact of climate change on its distribution and suitable habitat is crucial until scientific conservation measures are implemented. Based on seven environmental variables and 17 occurrence records, this study optimized the MaxEnt model using the kuenm data package to obtain the optimal parameter combinations (RM = 1.3, FC = LPT) and predicted the potential distribution pattern of C. luteoflora in various future periods. The results revealed that the mean diurnal range, temperature annual range, and precipitation of the wettest month were the influential factors determining the distribution pattern of C. luteoflora, contributing 60.2%, 14.4%, and 12.3% of the variability in the data, respectively. Under the current conditions, the area of suitable habitats for C. luteoflora was only about 21.9 × 104 km2. Overall, the suitable area around the C. luteoflora distribution points will shrink in a circular pattern in response to future global warming, but some potentially suitable distribution areas will expand and migrate to higher latitudes and the Hengduan Mountains region, representing a survival strategy for coping with climate change. It is hypothesized that the future climate refugia will be the highly suitable area and the Hengduan Mountains region. Furthermore, a retrospective validation method was employed to assess the reliability of the predictions and estimate the model’s predictive performance in the future. This study proposes a survival strategy and adaptation measures for C. luteoflora in response to climate change, and the proposed measures can be generalized for application in conservation planning and restoration processes. We also recommend that future studies incorporate factors such as the anthropogenic disturbances and associated socio-economic activities related to C. luteoflora into the model and to further predict the distribution pattern for C. luteoflora in response to historical climatic changes, tracing the evolutionary history of its population.

The Current Distribution of Carex alatauensis in the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau Estimated by MaxEnt

Modeling the current distribution of and predicting suitable habitats for threatened species support the species conservation and restoration planning process. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to model the actual distribution and predict environmentally suitable habitats for Carex alatauensis S.R.Zhang 2015, a locally threatened native grass species on the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau. To realize this objective, based on the geographical samples within the natural distribution of C. alatauensis, the dominant climatic factors in its potential distribution range were analyzed using the maximum entropy (MaxEnt) model. The results showed that the average values of the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) of the training data were 0.833 ± 0.044, which indicated that the accuracy of the MaxEnt model was pretty high for modeling potential distribution regions of C. alatauensis. The combined results from the Jackknife test and the presented contribution of environmental variables revealed that the annual precipitation, the growth season precipitation, and the precipitation of the driest month were the key climatic factors that restricted the distribution of C. alatauensis on the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau. It is predicted that the potential distribution area of C. alatauensis on the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau is 1.96 × 106 km2, and the most suitable area is 3.7 × 105 km2, mainly located in the Qilian Mountains, the Himalayas, and the Qingtanggula Mountains.

A Long-Term Vision for an Ecologically Sound Platte River

The Platte River extends about 310 mi (499 km) from North Platte, Nebraska, to its terminus at the Missouri River confluence near Plattsmouth, Nebraska. The Platte River Valley is a continentally significant ecosystem that serves as a major stopover for migratory waterbirds in the Central Flyway including the endangered Whooping Crane (Grus americana) and >1 million Sandhill Cranes (Antigone canadensis) at the peak of spring migration. However, the Platte River Valley also supports a great diversity of avifauna including grassland breeding birds, native stream fish, vascular plants, herpetofauna, mammals, pollinators, and aquatic macroinvertebrates. Despite ongoing conservation efforts since the mid-1970s the ecosystem remains largely conservation dependent and an increasing number of species across taxa are being considered at risk of regional extirpation or outright extinction. However, given the attention provided to conservation in the Platte River Valley and the need to maintain ecologically functional stopover sites in the Central Flyway, there is a great opportunity to create a resilient refugium for biodiversity conservation in the central Great Plains. To that end we convened a working group of >18 individuals representing >9 organizations including representatives from non-profit conservation organizations, universities, and state and federal natural resource agencies to develop a long-term vision for an ecologically sound Platte River Valley (PRV). We met in groups of varying size for >170 hours throughout a more than 3-year period and developed conservation priorities and objectives using a landscape design process. Landscape design is an interdisciplinary conservation planning process that incorporates components of landscape ecology and social dimensions of natural resources with the explicit intention of improving conservation implementation.

10 Conservation Planning for Greenhouse Gases in Animal Agriculture

Abstract The United States Department of Agriculture-Natural Resources Conservation Service (USDA-NRCS) works in a voluntary and collaborative manner with agricultural producers to solve natural resource issues on private lands. One of the key steps in formulating a solution to those natural resource issues is a conservation planning process that identifies the issues, highlights one or more conservation practice standards that can be used to address those issues, and allows the agricultural producer to select those conservation practices that make sense for their operation. In this conservation planning process, USDA-NRCS looks at natural resource issues related to soil, water, air, plants, animals, and energy (SWAPA+E). With the increasing focus on Climate Smart Agriculture and Forestry, the air quality natural resource concern associated with greenhouse gases is of particular importance. This presentation will focus on the USDA-NRCS conservation planning process for determining whether greenhouse gases from confined animal production is a resource concern and the conservation practice standard options that can be used to address an identified resource concern for greenhouse gases from confined animal production.

An evaluation of the effectiveness of Critical Biodiversity Areas, identified through a systematic conservation planning process, to reduce biodiversity loss outside protected areas in South Africa

Systematic Conservation Planning (SCP) is a spatially explicit process used globally to prioritize conservation actions, but its effectiveness is difficult to quantify. In South Africa, terrestrial SCP processes are mainly used to identify important biodiversity areas outside of formal protected areas that are required to meet conservation targets. Environmental policy refers to these areas as Critical Biodiversity Areas (CBAs), and uses them to inform land use change decisions. Using Mpumalanga Province as a case study, avoided loss within CBAs is quantified using counterfactual matching methods. To contextualize the results, it is benchmarked against avoided loss achieved by protected areas during the same period. Significant reductions of 54–72% in land clearing were achieved in CBAs compared to other natural areas and were comparable to avoided loss achieved by protected areas in similar evaluations in other countries. Protected areas in Mpumalanga were found to be very effective (88% relative avoided loss) but are located in areas of lower land use change pressures than CBAs. Avoided loss was quantified as 1058 ha for Irreplaceable CBAs, 5285 ha for Optimal CBAs and 20,586 ha for protected areas. The consideration of biodiversity priorities in land use change decisions outside protected areas was found to be an effective complementary strategy to protected areas to avoid loss of biodiversity in areas typically not available for protected area expansion.

Using the Conservation Standards Framework to Address the Effects of Climate Change on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services

Climate change has challenged biodiversity conservation practitioners and planners. In this paper, we provide scalable guidance on integrating climate change into conservation planning and adaptive management that results in the most appropriate conservation strategies. This integrated “Climate-Smart Conservation Practice” focuses on analyzing the potential impact of climate change on species, ecosystems, and ecosystem services, combined with “conventional” (non-climate) threats, and incorporating this knowledge into projects. The guidance is based on the already widely-used “Open Standards for the Practice of Conservation”, an application of systems thinking and adaptive management, which has been successfully applied to thousands of conservation projects. Our framework emphasizes a methodical analysis of climate change impacts for projects to support more productive goals and strategy development. We provide two case studies showing the applicability and flexibility of this framework. An initial key element is developing “situation models” that document both current and future threats affecting biodiversity while showing the interactions between climate and conventional threats. Guidance is also provided on how to design integrated, climate-smart goals and strategies, and detailed theories of change for selected strategies. The information and suggestions presented are intended to break down the steps to make the process more approachable, provide guidance to teams using climate change information within a systematic conservation planning process, and demonstrate how climate scientists can provide appropriate information to conservation planners.

Integrated Marine Management in the United Kingdom Overseas Territories

Like many small island communities, the United Kingdom Overseas Territories (UKOTs) are directly dependent on their marine resources for a range of ecosystem services, such as income generation, subsistence, leisure, recreation and wellbeing. Healthy marine ecosystems also play a broader role in climate regulation, coastal resilience and habitat provision. With Blue Belt Programme assistance, the UKOTs are developing enhanced protection and sustainable management strategies for their marine environments, using an Integrated Marine Management (IMM) approach. This coordinates cross-sectoral planning and management to carefully balance marine conservation and sustainable use of resources in order to minimize socio-cultural and economic impacts to the local community. We describe the IMM approach taken in two UKOT case studies. In Ascension Island, a conservation planning and resource management process was initiated with an objective to protect at least 50% of Ascension’s waters from commercial fishing, resulting in the designation of one of the largest Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) in the Southern Atlantic. In St Helena, a new licensing framework for marine developments was developed within an existing sustainable use MPA. From these two approaches, we highlight aspects of the process, lessons learned and recommendations that may be useful for other small islands planning to implement IMM, particularly regarding the importance of effective stakeholder engagement, coordination across different governance scales, and long-term financial resources.

Differences and similarities between Indigenous and conventional marine conservation planning: The case of the Songhees Nation, Canada

The biodiversity crisis is paralleled by a decline in the ability of Indigenous peoples to practice traditional livelihoods, cultures and languages. The world’s oceans and coastal communities face such threats, prompting increasing interest in establishing conservation measures. Systematic conservation planning (SCP) is a structured approach to establish conservation measures with clearly defined objectives, such as protected areas. Many Indigenous peoples are resurging to reclaim and protect some of their traditional lands and revitalize their cultures as rights holders. SCP goals and Indigenous goals could thus align. This research documents the Indigenous-led marine conservation planning process of the Songhees Nation to reclaim and assert stewardship around the Tl’ches archipelago near Victoria, Canada. We compare the Songhees marine conservation planning approach to SCP approaches. The Songhees approach showed similarities to SCP in the initial scoping phase of the marine conservation planning, in the review and compiling of existing data prior to the collection of data as well as the focus on focal species. The Songhees approach to marine conservation planning also differed from SCP as it included one zone only, did not involve any other stakeholders, and tried to account for the whole social-ecological system in one process step. This research provides useful insights and a guidance to help interested Indigenous communities worldwide to conduct their own marine conservation planning.

U.S. conservation translocations: Over a century of intended consequences

AbstractConservation translocations (reintroductions, reinforcements, ecological replacements, and assisted colonization) have played a vital and necessary role in conserving endangered species and ecosystems. Yet concerns over potential unintended ecological consequences frequently hinder the progress of translocation activities. We reviewed the history of U.S. translocations to ask: how often were intended benefits the result versus harmful unintended consequences? We found that translocations played a key role in recovery for 30% (14 of 47) of U.S. delisted taxa. Translocations have been performed, are planned, or are part of continuing recovery actions for 70% (1,112 of 1,580) of listed threatened and endangered taxa. Of the 1,014 total taxa we found with recorded conservation translocations spanning 125 years, we found only one restricted instance that caused a loss of biodiversity. All other reports of negative consequences were caused by translocations performed for economic and cultural interests in the absence of conservation‐based governance. Examples included fish stocking for sport and biological control programs for agricultural pests. We included biological control programs in this analysis because they can be and often are used as conservation tools, to directly benefit ecosystems. In addition, they are often raised as examples of harmful unintended results during the conservation planning process. However, only 1.4% (42) of 3,014 biological control agents released globally have caused ecosystem‐level deleterious impacts. All of these were initially released before the 1980s and conservation‐based practice and governance in recent decades have reduced off‐target impacts from biological control practice. Two themes emerged from our review: (a) conservation translocations routinely yielded their intended benefits without producing unintended harm, and (b) when ecological damage did occur, it was in the absence of conservation practice and regulation. This evidence shows that well‐planned translocation efforts produce ecosystem benefits, which should be weighed against the costs of inaction when deliberating conservation strategies.

Conservation Debates: People’s Perceptions and Values towards a Privately Protected Area in Southern Ecuador

The perceptions and values that local communities have towards protected areas are of great value for the improvement of these territories’ management. Such perceptions and values are often absent in the conservation planning process, particularly in those privately protected areas that are established in areas where the land tenure system is based not only on ownership but also on customary uses. Drawing on qualitative and quantitative data obtained through semi-structured interviews with key stakeholders and members of communities surrounding a privately protected area in southern Ecuador, we identify that the level of collaboration with the managers, the distance to the protected area, the percentage of untitled land, and the dependence on the resources (customary uses) are among the variables affecting these perceptions and values. Positive perceptions towards protected areas and naturalistic values are developed among those who collaborate with the protected area managers, whereas negative perceptions, and a mix of naturalistic and biospheric values are developed among those who have a sense of a lack of attention to social needs although supporting nature conservation at the same time. The evidence presented shows the importance of matching local peoples’ expectations with conservation goals during the establishment of a protected area.

Evaluating the use of marine protected areas by endangered species: A habitat selection approach

Abstract1. Optimizing the design of marine protected area (MPA) networks for the conservation of migratory marine species and their habitats involves a suite of important considerations, such as appropriate scale requirements and the distribution of anthropogenic impacts. Often, a fundamental component of the conservation planning process is delineating areas of high use or high biodiversity within a region of interest.2. However, basing conservation strategies off merely the number of individuals in an ecosystem is outdated and potentially subject to arbitrary thresholds. To be effective at protecting marine megafauna, MPAs would ideally encompass habitats used by focal species. Through satellite‐tracking studies, evidence of whether species actually use protected areas is emerging.3. Here, we present a multispecies perspective on habitat selection within existing MPAs throughout the Floridian ecoregion, which encompasses coastal Florida and the Gulf of Mexico. Using an 11‐year satellite‐tracking dataset on 235 marine turtles, we used integrated step selection analysis to quantify the effects of sea turtle behavioural state (identified by a switching state‐space model), protected area status, chlorophyll and bathymetry on habitat selection.4. Our results show that sea turtles do select for existing protected areas, specifically multi‐use zones, while controlling for the effects of depth and primary productivity. However, our analysis revealed that turtles showed no selection for the no‐take zones within MPAs, during either transiting or foraging.5. These findings contribute to the existing literature base of MPA use for highly mobile, imperilled species and could inform management of existing MPAs or changes to zoning, specifically multi‐use to no‐take. Our use of a robust spatial modelling framework to evaluate habitat selection relative to MPAs could be incorporated into conservation planning to build MPA networks designed to accommodate migratory species.

Incorporating Established Conservation Networks into Freshwater Conservation Planning Results in More Workable Prioritizations

Resources for addressing stream fish conservation issues are often limited and the stressors impacting fish continue to increase, so decision makers often rely on tools to prioritize locations for conservation actions. Because conservation networks already exist in many areas, incorporating these into the planning process can increase the ability of decision makers to carry out management actions. In this study we aim to identify priority areas within established networks to provide an approach which allows managers to focus efforts on the most valuable areas they control, while identifying areas outside of the network, which support species with minimal representation within the network, for acquisition or conservation partnerships. The goal of this approach is to prioritize sites to achieve high levels of species representation while also developing workable solutions. We applied a methodology incorporating established networks into a systematic conservation planning process for fish in temperate wadeable streams located in Missouri, USA. We compared how well species were represented in our approach with two commonly used alternatives: A blank slate approach which used the same systematic conservation planning technique but did not incorporate established networks, and a habitat integrity approach based solely on anthropogenic threat data. Relative to the blank slate approach, our approach required 210% more segments for representation of all species, and contained an average of 0.5 additional occurrences for the least well-represented species. Although the blank slate solution was more efficient in achieving species representation, 77% of segments in this solution were not already protected. This would likely pose a challenge for implementing conservation actions. Relative to habitat integrity-based priorities, our approach required only 38% of the number of stream segments to achieve representation of all species and contained an average of 5 additional occurrences of the least represented species, representing a substantial gain in representation. Incorporating established networks may allow managers to focus resources on areas with the greatest conservation value within established networks and to identify the most valuable areas complementary to the established networks, resulting in priorities which may be more actionable and effective than those developed by alternative approaches.

Namibia's way to Marine Spatial Planning – Using existing practices or instigating its own approach?

The territorial waters and EEZ of Namibia are part of the Benguela Current Large Marine Ecosystem in the South-East Atlantic. Growing demands and conflicts emerge although the area is not as intensely used as marine areas elsewhere. Namibia has chosen Marine Spatial Planning (MSP) as an integrated approach to facilitate sustainable ocean development and improved ocean governance. The paper explores the reality of the Namibian MSP process to date by investigating two guiding research questions: (1) What makes the Namibian approach to MSP distinct? and (2) What are the opportunities and difficulties of the Namibian MSP process in that particular context? The country's approach to MSP features a series of distinct attributes, not least due to its unique environmental and socio-economic context. Namibian MSP is highly precautionary and forward-looking given the relatively low intensity of current uses, has a strong ecosystem-based perspective due to the fairly pristine environment, is driven by a social equity and distributive justice agenda, and features a strong collaborative process governance. Whilst challenges such as limited financial resources, lacking legislation and weak links to broader ocean governance exist, the MSP process, which was linked to a systematic conservation planning process from the outset, has however resulted in a clear framework for the development of the first marine plan.

A flagship for Austral temperate forest conservation: an action plan for Darwin's frogs brings key stakeholders together

AbstractDarwin's frogsRhinoderma darwiniiandRhinoderma rufumare the only known species of amphibians in which males brood their offspring in their vocal sacs. We propose these frogs as flagship species for the conservation of the Austral temperate forests of Chile and Argentina. This recommendation forms part of the vision of the Binational Conservation Strategy for Darwin's Frogs, which was launched in 2018. The strategy is a conservation initiative led by the IUCN SSC Amphibian Specialist Group, which in 2017 convened 30 governmental, non-profit and private organizations from Chile, Argentina and elsewhere. Darwin's frogs are iconic examples of the global amphibian conservation crisis:R. rufumis categorized as Critically Endangered (Possibly Extinct) on the IUCN Red List, andR. darwiniias Endangered. Here we articulate the conservation planning process that led to the development of the conservation strategy for these species and present its main findings and recommendations. Using an evidence-based approach, the Binational Conservation Strategy for Darwin's Frogs contains a comprehensive status review ofRhinodermaspp., including critical threat analyses, and proposes 39 prioritized conservation actions. Its goal is that by 2028, key information gaps onRhinodermaspp. will be filled, the main threats to these species will be reduced, and financial, legal and societal support will have been achieved. The strategy is a multi-disciplinary, transnational endeavour aimed at ensuring the long-term viability of these unique frogs and their particular habitat.

Operationalizing ecological connectivity in spatial conservation planning with Marxan Connect

AbstractGlobally, protected areas are being established to protect biodiversity and to promote ecosystem resilience. The typical spatial conservation planning process leading to the creation of these protected areas focuses on representation and replication of ecological features, often using decision support tools such as Marxan. Yet, despite the important role ecological connectivity has in metapopulation persistence and resilience, Marxan currently requires manual input or specialized scripts to explicitly consider connectivity.‘Marxan Connect’ is a new open source, open access Graphical User Interface (GUI) tool designed to assist conservation planners with the appropriate use of data on ecological connectivity in protected area network planning.Marxan Connect can facilitate the use of estimates of demographic connectivity (e.g. derived from animal tracking data, dispersal models, or genetic tools) or structural landscape connectivity (e.g. isolation by resistance). This is accomplished by calculating metapopulation‐relevant connectivity metrics (e.g. eigenvector centrality) and treating those as conservation features or by including the connectivity data as a spatial dependency amongst sites in the prioritization process.Marxan Connect allows a wide group of users to incorporate directional ecological connectivity into conservation planning with Marxan. The solutions provided by Marxan Connect, combined with ecologically relevant post‐hoc testing, are more likely to support persistent and resilient metapopulations (e.g. fish stocks) and provide better protection for biodiversity.

Exit strategies for wildlife conservation: why they are rare and why every institution needs one

Exit strategies – plans to end involvement in a project once selected criteria have been reached – are rare in conservation planning but can play a vital role in the conservation planning process; such strategies also prepare the institution, its staff, its partners, and a wider group of stakeholders for eventual success or failure and signal when it is time to move on. Exit strategies may indicate that the project has been terminated but may also signal success, or that project leadership has transitioned to another, more appropriate entity. We address why exit strategies are uncommon in conservation, why they are essential, what determines when to transition or leave, and how to plan for circumstances afterwards. A good exit strategy addresses financial and legal liabilities to employees, publication of results, and ownership of data, among other things. A comprehensive, thoughtful strategy can lead to “beautiful exits” that minimize negative consequences to the project.

Efficiency of unlocking or locking existing protected areas for identifying complementary areas for biodiversity conservation

It is well known that existing protected areas (PAs) should function as focal areas for expanding PA systems. The optimal complementary conservation areas are often identified by implementing two approaches in systematic conservation planning, i.e., unlocking or locking existing PAs. However, evidence-based studies are lacking for clarifying the efficiencies of these two planning approaches. With Sichuan in southwest China – part of a global biodiversity hotspot – as one case, this study first assessed the ecological representativeness of existing nature reserves (NRs). Using 32 natural vegetation types as the conservation features, we then implemented a systematic conservation planning process by running Marxan software with NR-unlocked and NR-locked scenarios. A human disturbance index was also included as a penalty function in Marxan for achieving cost-effective planning. We finally investigated the efficiencies of the unlocking and locking planning approaches by comparing the outcomes of the NR-unlocked and NR-locked scenarios. We found that existing NRs were geographically biased towards the western mountainous regions with high elevations and low human disturbance levels. For achieving the same quantitative conservation targets, the total area of the NR-locked priority conservation areas was 18.6% larger than that of the NR-unlocked areas, whereas the area of NR-locked complementary areas to existing NRs was 15.3% smaller than that of NR-unlocked ones. Moreover, the NR-locked priority conservation areas had higher ecological representativeness than NR-unlocked areas. The results suggest that if a completely new PA system is to be established without considering existing PAs, the unlocking approach could more efficiently achieve the full conservation targets at lower costs of land area and with better connected habitats. When existing PAs must be used as focal areas for expansion, the locking approach is more cost-effective for filling conservation gaps by requiring smaller amounts of complementary areas. Our analysis provides evidence-based support for expanding the current PA systems in a cost-effective manner.