What is conservation planning?

What is conservation planning? Habitat loss and degradation, climate change, and economic pressures for resource extraction have all led to a global loss of biodiversity. The limited resources available for conservation need to be used both effectively and efficiently...

The CARE Principles.

The CARE Principles. Connectivity, Adequacy, Representation, and Effectiveness are four key principles that should be considered when designing a conservation network. These CARE principles are fundamental to conserve biodiversity in the long term. Most systematic...

Problem formulation: What are you trying to achieve?

Problem formulation: What are you trying to achieve? The most important, and often overlooked, step in carrying out a conservation planning exercise is adequately defining the problem that you are trying to achieve. What is the question you are trying to answer? What...

A framework for systematic conservation planning.

A framework for systematic conservation planning. In this section we summarise the framework presented in Pressey and Bottrill (2009). They suggest that the systematic conservation planning process occurs in eleven stages. The process is not unidirectional — there are...

What is Marxan?

What is Marxan? Marxan comprises a suite of different software applications to support conservation planning decisions by providing cost-efficient solutions to complex conservation problems. It is the most widely used spatial planning software in the world with...

Planning units.

Planning units. Planning units are the building blocks of any conservation or zoning plan. They convert the world into smaller more manageable pieces that can be treated separately from one another, similar to a jigsaw puzzle. Each planning unit contains information...

Targets and target setting.

Targets and target setting. In conservation planning targets are the minimum quantity or proportion of the feature (important habitats, species, processes, activities, and discrete areas that you want to consider in your planning process) in the planning region to be...

Costs.

Costs. In conservation planning, cost data may reflect any variety of socioeconomic factors, which if minimized, might help the conservation plan be implemented more effectively and reduce conflicts with other uses. Following are some examples of different definitions...

Gap Analysis.

Gap Analysis. A gap analysis is a traditional planning evaluation based on the assessment of existing or proposed protected-area networks. The analysis identifies critical gaps in coverage (Scott et al. 1993) in order to highlight biodiversity that may not be...

Stratification.

Stratification. Sometimes we want to stratify (break-up, arrange, or classify) features by spatial units or even other features, for example, ecosystems or local administration units. Take this Giant Anteater. Its range is across three different ecosystems. If we...