Spatial Conservation Prioritization Research Articles

Think regionally, act locally: Perspectives on co‐design of spatial conservation prioritization tools and why end‐user engagement altered our approach

AbstractCoproduction represents an inclusive approach for developing decision‐support resources because it seeks to integrate scientific knowledge and end‐user needs. Unfortunately, spatial decision support systems (SDSS) coproduction has sometimes resulted in limited utility for end‐users, partially due to scarce SDSS coproduction guidance. To initiate coproduction, we held a series of workshops to co‐design a spatial conservation prioritization tool for sagebrush ecosystems in the western United States. We share four themes derived from participant feedback and our reflections to guide future SDSS codesign efforts. We found end‐user confidence in data inputs and transparency regarding SDSS assumptions generated trust. Workshop participants noted our virtual format, with smaller break‐out groups, effectively facilitated discussions. Ultimately, end‐users appreciated the conservation context provided by regional‐scale SDSS but preferred local‐scale prioritization efforts for site‐level planning. Therefore, we are shifting ongoing co‐design efforts to consider local‐scale tool development, which can scale up to larger geographic extents.

Habitat heterogeneity diversity: A simple animal biodiversity surrogate in Spain

The lack of wall-to-wall biotic inventories poses a significant challenge for conservation biology. Therefore, a primary goal in conserving the unknown (species and their distribution) is finding biodiversity surrogates. This study uses remote sensing techniques and animal distribution in Spain to propose a new surrogate - habitat heterogeneity diversity (HHD). HHD was defined using measures of NDVI (Normalized difference vegetation index) and maximum dispersion approach to identify areas that spam habitat heterogeneity among sites. The efficacy of HHD in selecting sites to represent species was compared to the biotic surrogate rarity-weighted richness (RWR), a single NDVI measure, and a null solution. This study also investigated the spatial patterns of RWR and whether the methodology used to estimate HHD influences its efficiency as a surrogate. RWR patterns generally show high values in the north. While the correlations among RWR values were generally moderate, HHD successfully represented species compared to NDVI and null solutions and, in some cases, RWR. HHD is a robust alternative for complementarity-based solutions for solving problems that require the representation of at least one occurrence per species. Since HHD could be calculated using NDVI variables, the cost of conservation planning could be reduced since remote sensing variables are widely available and accessible most of the time. When validated, HHD could be incorporated into spatial conservation prioritization plans alongside other abiotic-based solutions at the same scale that conservation is practiced.

Evaluating different approaches to integrate genome-wide genetic diversity in spatial conservation prioritization

Locations for new protected areas should be identified with consideration of intraspecific genetic diversity because genetic variation enhances the adaptability of species to novel environmental conditions. The process of siting new protected areas is called spatial conservation prioritization and is often formulated as a mathematical problem to be solved with the aid of computer software. Integrating multidimensional continuous metrics of genome-wide genetic diversity in spatial conservation prioritization involves significant challenges in terms of computation speed and memory requirements. In this study, we tested and compared several approaches to approximate the multidimensional continuous metrics of genetic diversity using multidimensional discrete genetic clusters or unidimensional discrete conservation features. To this end, we applied two tools for spatial conservation prioritization, raptr and prioritizr, to genomic datasets of two fish species (the white seabream Diplodus sargus and the red mullet Mullus surmuletus) sampled throughout most of their distribution range in the Mediterranean Sea. We found that most of the approximations tested either did not achieve all genetic conservation targets or resulted in excessively high conservation costs. Nonetheless, approaches based on multidimensional genetic clusters allowed generating prioritizations with relatively small gaps in genetic objectives at very high computation speed. This might be an interesting option for exploratory or interactive analyses such as those performed in workshop with stakeholders.

National scale biodiversity conservation priorities based on integrated multiple vulnerability features in China

To meet the ambitious goals of the post-2020 global biodiversity framework, China’s spatial implementation plan, which will delineate which areas will be protected, requires clarity at the national level. Prioritizing biodiversity alone, especially when a single species' richness is emphasized, may lead to inadequate conservation strategies, thus making it challenging to meet the requirements of collaborative governance. Here, we provide a spatial conservation prioritization method integrating species, carbon, climate, and anthropogenic vulnerability features. As such, we identified land to prioritize in conservation efforts by constructing different conservation scenarios with different combinations of vulnerability features using Chinese terrestrial ecosystems as an example. We also analyzed the differences in the benefits of different conservation scenarios. The results showed spatial variability in the distribution of land prioritized by the various protection scenarios. The conservation scenario that combined all features best harmonized the benefits and thus avoided an imbalance in conservation caused by an undue focus on one feature. The scenarios covered 73.54% of biodiversity hotspots, 63.17% of vulnerable carbon hotspots, and 80.21% of climate hotspots. We also found that forests had a strong presence in the various configurations of prioritized land, and usually exceeded 50% of the prioritized area. Secondly, cropland accounted for a prominent proportion of prioritized land at approximately 29.72%, and ranked second only to forests. In addition, when accounting for carbon vulnerability as well, the proportion of grasslands in the prioritized land increased by about 3.35 times. This study offers valuable and citable information that may be used to support biodiversity conservation initiatives in China.

Spatial Conservation Prioritization for Land in Megacity Facing Climate Change and Biodiversity Loss

Climate change and biodiversity loss are two major threats to the world. Ecosystem conservation is an important issue for humanity, and international intergovernmental science-policy platforms highlight the mutually beneficial relationships among biodiversity conservation, ecosystem services and measures to mitigate climate change. Rapid urbanization has brought various deeply interconnected ecological problems to large cities. Therefore, key areas for conservation must be identified in an integrative manner to maximize conservation effectiveness and meet both ecological and human social needs. Spatial conservation prioritization provides a way to consider different functional needs as a whole in light of certain objectives while highlighting their contradictions and overlaps in spatial utilization. The megacity of Beijing continues to experience frequent extreme weather events despite the implementation of a series of ecological restoration measures. We integrated the potential distributions of 64 critically endangered native species to represent biodiversity and used five main ecosystem services required for climate governance to represent ecosystem services in the city. Using the spatial prioritization software Zonation 5, we assessed the spatial distribution of conservation priorities at the municipal scale and changes in conservation effectiveness in four protection scenarios. The results showed that the existing PAs in Beijing could protect 24.99% of the current distribution of biodiversity and ecosystem services. The conservation effectiveness can reach 78.75% when the PAs are increased to 30%. This efficiency rate is 4.46% lower than that of the optimal scenario, which does not consider the existing PAs. An emphasis on urban rewilding spaces may be the key to overcoming conservation bottlenecks to further enhance the efficiency of ecological conservation. To achieve future conservation targets, policy development may start with urban built-up areas.

Spatial Conservation Prioritization of Persian Squirrel Based on Habitat Suitability and Climate-Induced Forest Mortality Risk

The Zagros forests in Iran are currently experiencing an exacerbation of climate-induced mortality, placing the Persian squirrel, a keystone species reliant on these ecosystems, in jeopardy. Addressing this imminent threat, our research employed a spatial prioritization methodology, integrating assessments of habitat suitability and mortality risk. Utilizing a weighted ensemble approach, incorporating the strengths of diverse models and expert rules, we discerned that approximately 62% of surveyed forests are at risk, with 7% classified as high risk and 17% as very high risk. Notably, 83% of the forests exhibited varying degrees of habitat suitability, with 11% and 12% demonstrating high and very high suitability, respectively. Employing a conservation prioritization framework, we systematically categorized habitats into priority classes, with 8%, 17%, 29%, and 46% assigned to very high, high, moderate, and low conservation priority classes, respectively. Significantly, areas classified as very high priority demand immediate restoration efforts due to ongoing mortality, while other priority classes underscore the importance of protection and prevention in unaffected habitats. Acknowledging the irreversible nature of current climatic conditions in the Zagros forests, our strategic emphasis aligns with conservation triage principles, prioritizing the preservation of intact habitats yet to succumb to irreversible mortality.

Spatial analysis enables priority selection in conservation practices for landscapes that need ecological security

Global urbanization has not only promoted social and economic development, but also contributed to seriously ecological challenges. As a type of sustainable landscape patterns, ecological security pattern is considered as an effective spatial pathway to simultaneously conserve ecological security and maintain social-economic development. However, the fragmentation issue of ecological sources of ecological security pattern has not been effectively addressed, although many case studies have been conducted to identify ecological security pattern. In this study, we used spatial conservation prioritization to identify the ecological security pattern of the city belt along the Yellow River in Ningxia, China. Ecological sources were selected using Zonation model while ecological corridors and key ecological nodes were identified with circuit model. The results showed that the ecological security pattern was composed of 97 ecological sources, 226 ecological corridors, 267 pinch points and 22 barriers, covering a total area of 7713.1 km2 and accounting for 34% of the study area. Ecological sources were concentrated in the Helan Mountain, Xiang Mountain and along the Yellow River. Besides, ecological corridors were dense in the southern and eastern part of the study area. Both indicated that the Yellow River and Helan Mountain were the conservation hotspots. Landscape connectivity of ecological sources identified through Zonation-based spatial conservation prioritization was better than that with the scoring approach based on ecosystem service importance. Particularly, in the Zonation approach the landscape connectivity increased with 44% while the average patch area increased with 28% when comparing with the scoring approach. The spatial conservation prioritization approach proposed in this study provides a new effective tool to construct ecological security pattern, which is conducive to the synergic enhancement of landscape connectivity and ecosystem services conservation.

Assessing forest conservation outcomes of a nature reserve in a subtropical forest ecosystem: effectiveness, spillover effects, and insights for spatial conservation prioritization

Protected areas (PAs) are pivotal in the conservation of global forest ecosystems, and understanding their effectiveness and spillover effects is crucial to evaluate their overall performance. While PAs are well-documented for their role in reducing deforestation, research examining their influence on mitigating non-stand replacement forest degradation or forest carbon emissions remains insufficient. Additionally, the nuanced heterogeneity in the effectiveness and spillover effects of PAs are not yet fully understood, impeding our ability to leverage outcome-based evidence for crafting spatial conservation strategies to expand PAs. In this study, integrating a rigorous counterfactual analysis and remote sensing observations, we probed the effectiveness and spillover effects of the Gutianshan National Nature Reserve (GNNR), located in Kaihua County of China, in curbing forest degradation, forest loss, and forest carbon emissions. We also explored the heterogeneity of these effects and identified spatial conservation priorities based on nonuniform impacts of effectiveness. Our findings showed that the GNNR designation remarkably curtailed forest degradation, forest loss, and forest carbon emissions by 78.56 %, 95.54 %, and 97.01 %, respectively, while also extending these mitigating effects to adjacent areas. However, we also detected leakage effects, causing a displacement of forest carbon emissions in areas 5–15 km around the reserve. The effectiveness and spillover effects exhibited heterogeneous patterns across geographical conditions. Informed by this heterogeneity, we pinpointed areas showing high conservation suitability as spatial conservation priorities, covering 35.64 % of Kaihua County, thereby boosting future forest and carbon management efforts. Our results advance the understanding of PA effectiveness and spillover effects within low-altitude subtropical forest ecosystems and offer insights into integrating outcome-based and area-based conservation approaches to achieve the 30 × 30 conservation target at a regional scale.

Integrating ecosystem services and ecological connectivity to prioritize spatial conservation on Jeju Island, South Korea

Increasing development pressure on designated natural heritage areas poses a significant threat to biodiversity and ecosystems. Balancing intensive development and biodiversity conservation is crucial for achieving ecological sustainability. Ecological connectivity (EC) enhances regional ecological sustainability by promoting interactions between ecological sources and stabilizing ecosystem dynamics. Spatial conservation prioritization (SCP) is a useful approach for identifying areas requiring protection; however, resource allocation decisions for connectivity conservation remain challenging. In this study, we identified SCP areas and evaluated EC using the circuit theory-based Omniscape algorithm on Jeju Island, South Korea, a designated natural heritage site. Our objectives were to identify key pinch point areas, determine suitable locations for conservation and restoration based on our EC findings, and discuss strategies to enhance EC on Jeju Island. Our results showed that ecological sources are predominantly situated in central and eastern Jeju Island, whereas urban areas had high resistance values. These findings indicate ecological disconnection between coastal and mid-mountain areas; pinch points represented 4.92% and 8.87% of these areas, respectively. Channeled areas were mainly concentrated in mid-mountain regions. SCP areas occurred in small (22.06 km2, 18%) and large (97.52 km2, 79.54%) patches in coastal and mid-mountain areas, respectively, which did not overlap with existing protected areas. Our findings will assist land use planners and stakeholders in implementing conservation and restoration policies for mid-mountain areas, and provide guidance for connecting coastal and inland regions.

National high-resolution conservation prioritisation of boreal forests

The continuous decline of forest biodiversity highlights the importance of the development of cost-effective and ecologically sustainable land-use planning approaches. Spatial conservation prioritisation (SCP) can be regarded as a useful tool for this challenge. We produced high-resolution, national scale SCP analyses to identify unprotected forest areas that host valuable forest biodiversity. We used stand-based modelled dead wood potential (DWP) data as a primary surrogate for conservation value. In addition, data on forestry operations that have negative impacts on biodiversity, connectivity between forest areas, the observations of red-listed forest species, connectivity to forest habitats of special importance for biodiversity, and connectivity to permanent protected areas were included in the analyses. Analyses addressed the estimation of present value and that of future potential following increases in connectivity. The results show that there are high conservation priority forest areas all over Finland although their distribution is highly fragmented. Depending on the version of the analyses, the best 10% of the landscape contains from 49% to 88% of the conservation values, a significant portion of which lie outside the current protected area network. Consequently, as biodiversity continues to decline in Finland and as most of the Finnish forest area is under commercial management, the current protected area network cannot be expected to halt the ongoing decline of forest biodiversity. Therefore, these analyses provide much-needed information for decision-making. They are a pragmatic tool for the planning of forest conservation networks and commercial management of forests at regional and national scales.

Integrating biodiversity and ecosystem services to identify ecological priorities for an ecologically fragile city in China

AbstractA high rate of urbanization comes with high environmental costs, leading to reductions in biodiversity and ecosystem services (BES). How to maximize the efficiency and representation of BES in cities is of utmost urgency. However, in the process of spatial prioritization identification, it remains unclear whether a preference for ecosystem services (ES) promotes or detracts from biodiversity. In this study, a Marxan‐based spatial conservation prioritization framework is provided to achieve a win–win situation for ES provision and biodiversity protection. Using Hohhot city, China as a study case, it sets up different weighting scenarios with species and five ES to determine the optimal protected area network for each possible combination. At the same time, it tests the conservation costs, protected features, and spatial overlap of different scenarios with existing protected areas to quantify their conservation efficiency. We found that (1) closed deciduous broadleaved forests, closed evergreen needle‐leaved forests, and deciduous shrublands could support both high biodiversity and abundant ES at altitudes of 1600–2000 m. (2) Although a positive association is found between ES and biodiversity, there is some spatial variation. The geographical overlap rate with biodiversity prioritization was only 29.72% when only ES were considered. (3) Conservation of ecological hotspots by increasing the weight of ES can reduce conservation expenses by 0.69%–20.32% compared to meeting solely biodiversity targets. Our analyses highlight the need for an appropriate weighting of ES in decisions seeking to identify protected areas. This study provides methodological support for the integration of ES and biodiversity, facilitating more comprehensive conservation planning decisions.

Spatial conservation prioritization for locating protected area gaps in Iran

In line with global conservation targets, Iran aims to increase its protected area coverage from c. 11 % to 20 %. We explored an area-efficient and balanced set of criteria to find areas that best complement existing protected areas for achieving these targets. We used distribution maps of all threatened vertebrates in a systematic conservation planning approach and compared four different methods of weighting species and locations: 1) species weighted equally, 2) weighted by distribution characteristics (i.e. presence, origin, seasonality) and important habitat surrogates (Important Bird Areas and Endemic Bird Areas), 3) species' level of endemism, and IUCN Red List threat status, and 4) considering opportunity cost based on levels of urbanization to reflect the current land's ecological conditions. We then determined the extent to which existing protected areas cover conservation priorities for different species groups, and explored how new priorities complement Iran's protected area network to achieve national target to protect 20 % of its land area. Our findings showed that parts of terrestrial ecoregions in the north, north-west and west of the country were consistently important in all scenarios, representing the best places to start increasing protected area coverage. Protecting 20 % of the country in the prioritizations constrained by existing protected areas would conserve biodiversity groups in 70 % to 100 % of their distribution, except for birds and mammals for which the protection coverage was lower. Our study locates the important areas for conservation in line with national and international targets that require effective conservation action.

Meeting Human and Biodiversity Needs for 30 × 30 and beyond with an Iterative Land Allocation Framework and Tool

Spatial conservation prioritization does not necessarily lead to effective conservation plans, and good plans do not necessarily lead to action. These “science-action” gaps are pernicious and need to be narrowed, especially if the international goal of conserving 30% of the planet by 2030 is to be realized. We present the Earthwise Framework, a flexible and customizable spatial decision support system (SDSS) architecture and social process to address the challenges of these science-action gaps. Utilizing case study experience from regions within California, South Africa, and British Columbia, we outline the framework and provide the Little Karoo, South Africa SDSS data, code and results to illustrate five design strategies of the framework. The first is to employ an “open science” strategy for collaborative conservation planning and action. Another is that marginal value functions allow for the continuous accounting of element (e.g., habitat) representation in prioritization algorithms, allowing for an SDSS that is more automated and saves valuable time for stakeholders and scientists. Thirdly, we program connectivity modeling integrated within the SDSS, with an algorithm that not only automatically calculates all the least cost corridors of a region, but prioritizes among them and removes the ones that do not make ecological sense. Fourth, we highlight innovations in multi-criteria decision analysis that allow for both cost-efficient plan development, like representative solution sets, but also land-use planning requirements, like site specific valuation, in what appears to be a more transparent, understandable, and usable manner than traditional approaches. Finally, strategic attention to communicating uncertainty is also advocated. The Earthwise Framework is an open science endeavor that can be implemented via a variety of software tools and languages, has several frontiers for further research and development, and shows promise in finding a better way to meet the needs of both humans and biodiversity.

Wind energy expansion and birds: Identifying priority areas for impact avoidance at a national level

Wind energy can harm birds through collision mortality, displacement, barrier to movements, and habitat loss or degradation with largely unknown consequences for their populations. Impact avoidance via appropriate site selection is the most effective means for preventing or alleviating damage from wind energy. Appropriate site selection requires a knowledge of landscape priorities. Here, we used a Spatial Conservation Prioritisation software to identify priority areas for bird conservation in relation to onshore wind energy in Finland, providing spatial guidance for impact avoidance at the national level. We showed that high bird priority areas are mainly concentrated in coastal and adjacent areas, thus entailing marked regional differences and responsibilities. Only a fraction of high priority areas (e.g., 15 % of 10 % top priority areas) is under some level of protection, indicating that the network of protected areas should be expanded to safeguard sensitive species. We found that the west coast, in particular, concentrates potential conflicts between birds and wind energy due to the co-occurrence of high priority areas and extensive wind energy development regionally. Thus, focusing conservation action away from areas already extensively targeted by wind energy cannot meet the conservation needs of many sensitive species, some of which occur exclusively or mainly in coastal areas. We recommend that birds be protected by avoiding construction in high priority areas and conducting careful spatial planning in coastal and potentially high conflict areas. Our results can contribute to bird conservation schemes, while addressing the pressing issue of biodiversity protection in the context of energy transition.

Effects of climate and land-cover change on the conservation status of gibbons.

Species shift their distribution in response to climate and land-cover change, which may result in a spatial mismatch between currently protected areas (PAs) and priority conservation areas (PCAs). We examined the effects of climate and land-cover change on potential range of gibbons and sought to identify PCAs that would conserve them effectively. We collected global gibbon occurrence points and modeled (ecological niche model) their current and potential 2050s ranges under climate-change and different land-cover-change scenarios. We examined change in range and PA coverage between the current and future ranges of each gibbon species. We applied spatial conservation prioritization to identify the top 30% PCAs for each species. We then determined how much of the PCAs are conserved in each country within the global range of gibbons. On average, 31% (SD 22) of each species' current range was covered in PAs. PA coverage of the current range of 9 species was <30%. Nine species lost on average 46% (SD 29) of their potential range due to climate change. Under climate-change with an optimistic land-cover-change scenario (B1), 12 species lost 39% (SD 28) of their range. In a pessimistic land-cover-change scenario (A2), 15 species lost 36% (SD 28) of their range. Five species lost significantly more range under the A2 scenario than the B1 scenario (p=0.01, SD 0.01), suggesting that gibbons will benefit from effective management of land cover. PA coverage of future range was <30% for 11 species. On average, 32% (SD 25) of PCAs were covered by PAs. Indonesia contained more species and PCAs and thus has the greatest responsibility for gibbon conservation. Indonesia, India, and Myanmar need to expand their PAs to fulfill their responsibility to gibbon conservation. Our results provide a baseline for global gibbon conservation, particularly for countries lacking gibbon research capacity.

Literature, social media and questionnaire surveys identify relevant conservation areas for Carcharhinus species in the Mediterranean Sea

Sharks support ecosystems’ health, but their populations are facing severe declines worldwide. Knowledge gaps on shark distribution and the negative human perception of them still represent a barrier to the implementation of effective conservation measures. Here we carried out a regional-scale analysis in the Mediterranean Sea using data on requiem shark catches and sightings available in the scientific literature and on social media platforms to: 1) depict the distribution of Carcharhinus species across the basin, 2) identify potentially relevant areas for their conservation, and 3) evaluate people’s attitude toward shark protection. In addition, we administered 112 questionnaires in one of the very few shark-diving spots in the Mediterranean Sea to assess the potential role of sustainable shark-tourism activities in enhancing people’s self-perceived knowledge of sharks and supporting positive attitudes toward their conservation. We show that social media content represented a valuable update of literature data from 58 papers contributing to identifying potentially relevant conservation areas for requiem shark populations. Social media data mining revealed a general shift toward positive perceptions of sharks in recent years, whilst negative attitudes still prevail in postings shared by fishers. Moreover, questionnaire surveys suggested that shark diving activities may further improve tourist perceptions of sharks and increase diver willingness to support conservation measures. By integrating different data sources, this study provides useful information for spatial conservation prioritization and for progressing our understanding of human and ecological dimensions of shark conservation, a necessary step toward specific and efficient protection policies.

Conservation and Development: Reassessing the Florida 2070 Planning Project with Spatial Conservation Prioritization

The state of Florida is renowned for its globally recognized biodiversity richness, but it currently suffers from an ongoing population boom and corresponding urban sprawl resulting in the emergence of severe conservation conflicts, especially in southern parts of Florida. To mitigate the intense competing land use situation and comprehend the dynamic complex relationship between conservation and development, this study argues that both ecological and social dimensions should be taken into account for spatial analysis and underpin zoning decisions empirically in the phase of landscape planning. Choosing South Florida as the study site, we implemented focal-species-based spatial conservation prioritization analysis using Zonation software to identify the highest priority areas and accordingly evaluate two varying land use scenarios provided by the Florida 2070 Project. From a novel perspective of impact avoidance, the inverse prioritization method was applied in this study, intended to minimize negative human impacts and examine the effectiveness and suitability of Florida’s future land use projections. After comparing and integrating social-ecological data through mapping, the study uncovered a holistic view of conservation conflicts in Florida and articulated trade-offs for all parties of the local ecosystem striving to reconcile human–wildlife conflicts in Florida and imply a sustainable win-win strategy in the stage of regional landscape planning.

Prioritizing Areas for Primate Conservation in Argentina

Argentina lies within the southernmost distributional range of five neotropical primates, the brown howler monkey Alouatta guariba, the black-and-gold howler monkey Alouatta caraya, the black-horned capuchin Sapajus nigritus, the Azara’s capuchin Sapajus cay, and the Azara’s owl monkey Aotus azarae; the first three of which are globally threatened. These species occupy different ecoregions: the Alto Paraná Atlantic forest, the Araucaria moist forest, the humid Chaco, the Southern Cone Mesopotamian savanna, the Paraná Ffooded savanna, and the Southern Andean Yungas. The recently approved National Primate Conservation Plan of Argentina calls for identifying priority areas to focus conservation actions for these species. We used species distribution models to estimate species ranges and then used the Zonation software to perform a spatial conservation prioritization analysis based on primate habitat quality and connectivity to identify potential areas of importance at national and ecoregional levels. Only 7.2% (19,500 km2) of the area inhabited by primates in Argentina is under protection. Outside the current protected areas, the top-ranked 1% and 5% priority areas identified in our analysis covered 1894 and 7574 km2, respectively. The top 1% areas were in the Atlantic forest of Misiones province, where S. nigritus, A. guariba, and A. caraya are distributed, and in the humid portion of eastern Chaco and Formosa provinces, where A. azarae and A. caraya are present. The top 5% areas included portions of the Yungas, where S. cay is the only primate present. Priority areas in Chaco and Formosa provinces are particularly relevant because of the paucity of protected areas and the high deforestation rate. The endangered A. guariba population will benefit from the better protection of the priority areas of Misiones. The potential priority areas proposed herein, considered within a context of a broad participatory process involving relevant stakeholders and local people, will help guide new and innovative conservation policies and practices while supporting management objectives.

A simple and extensible framework to identify key areas for the conservation of single vulnerable freshwater species

One of the main challenges in conservation biogeography of freshwater fishes is the improvement of conservation planning strategies. Nonetheless, the implementation of such strategies has lagged in freshwater systems, limiting their protection to the priorities of land organisms. Since the repercussions and relative importance for conservation across freshwater species can vary tremendously, and the application of such strategies requires information on multiple species, it is valuable to consider extensible and straightforward approaches that can be applied to single species. Here we use a freshwater fish species native to the Colombian Andes (Brycon henni) as a model to implement a methodology for spatial conservation prioritization considering four criteria: i) representativeness (protection of species distribution), ii) viability (maximizing probability of success), iii) complementarity (recognition of the currently protected area network), and iv) connectivity (promoting connectivity amongst protected areas). Using the proposed methodology based on the potential distribution of B. henni and hydrographic sub-basins as planning units, we recommend the protection of nine sub-basins climatically suitable for the species and with strategic river corridors that would promote the connection amongst basins and the currently protected areas. This methodological proposal can contribute to the current strategy design implemented by the National System of Protected Areas in Colombia to conserve or recover ecosystems and fragmented natural habitats, providing design options that meet ecological and socioeconomic objectives. Lastly, we consider that the methodology proposed here could be used with a more significant number of species of interest and implemented on a regional and global scale.

Optimization schemes for the spatially explicit management of small watersheds based on ecosystem disservices

Reasonable planning of spatially explicit management measures is key to effectively achieving management goals. In this study, we adopted a spatial conservation prioritization method, which combines functional zoning, ecosystem disservice bundles, and existing management measures, with the aim of developing optimal deployment plans in six small watersheds in northwestern Beijing. First, we investigated the existing management measures in the study areas and recorded their sizes, scopes, and effectiveness. Second, according to the management priority, we ranked pixels representing the study area with the Zonation 4.0 platform. The process is based on the ideas of both spatial conservation prioritization and how the seven ecosystem disservices (sediment export, nitrogen and phosphorus pollution export, surface runoff, quick flow, and risks of collapse and debris flow) distribute spatially. Finally, we moved the existing management measures to suitable higher priority locations by matching the management priority rank indicated by the pixels, the functional zoning, which represents the main environmental problems, and the land use/cover types. Additionally, the changes in the ecosystem disservices were evaluated before and after the optimization operation. The results showed that the pixels with a higher management priority were located mainly in the plain areas and the junctions of the mountains and the plains, where the main environmental problems were water pollution and quick flow. Most of the management measures, such as percolation drainage ditches and greening, were moved to the plains in the optimization scheme. The extents of the decreases in five ecosystem disservices (sediment export, nitrogen and phosphorus pollution export, surface runoff, and quick flow) after optimization exceeded 90% in the study areas. This study provided a method to develop the plans of spatially explicit management measures for watersheds, the application of which ensures a scientific basis for management planning. Widely applying this method would improve the effectiveness of spatial management measures.