Costs in conservation: Common costly mistakes and how to avoid them

There has been an increasingly prevalent message that data regarding costs must be included in conservation planning activities to make cost-efficient decisions. Despite the growing acceptance that socioeconomic context is critical to conservation success, the approaches to embedded economic and financial considerations into planning have not significantly evolved. Inappropriate cost data is frequently included in decisions, with the potential of compromising biodiversity and social outcomes. For each conservation planning step, this essay details common mistakes made when considering costs, proposing solutions to enable conservation managers to know when and how to include costs. Appropriate use of high-quality cost data obtained at the right scale will improve decision-making and ultimately avoid costly mistakes.

Integrated social-ecological data for regional natural resource management

Natural resource managers need information about both human and natural systems and interactions between those systems. Much data is available, but mostly from disparate sources and data have often been collected at different time steps and at different geographic scales. We used insights from the literature to select 270 relevant variables, available at national scale, from 33 unique (Australian) data sources. There were numerous with repeat measures, so in total we have 425 variables: 143 specific to 2016, 148 specific to 2021, and 134 available for both periods. We used GIS to summarize the variables spatially based on two geographic boundaries: one describes 63 Natural Resource Management Regions; the other describes 419 (sub) bioregions (formally, IBRA - Interim Biogeographic Regionalisation for Australia). Data deficiencies prevented us from being able to report on all variables for all regions. In the NRM dataset many regions are offshore islands, about which data are not generally available. Moreover, many IBRA regions are small and household level data are not always available at that scale. For analyses requiring a complete dataset at a single time step, our 2021 dataset for NRM regions includes 270 unique variables that describe 56 regions. Our IBRA data includes 214 variables describing 409 regions. To help managers select appropriate data for specific problems/contexts, the metadata file also categorises variables according to (a) whether they pertain to the social or ecological system, or interactions; (b) the segment of society described (where relevant); and (c) the frequency with which data are updated.

Social media data for biodiversity conservation

Systematic conservation planning is considered best practice for identifying priority areas, but applications remain limited where biodiversity data are insufficient. In a recent article, Chowdhury et al. tap into citizen scientists via Facebook to address this gap in Bangladesh. Here, I discuss the importance of their demonstrated pipeline, from data acquisition to conservation prioritisation.

Quantifying population-level conservation impacts for a perpetual conservation program on private land

Area-based targets, such as percentages of regions protected, are popular metrics of success in the protection of nature. While easily quantified, these targets can be uninformative about the effectiveness of conservation interventions and should be complemented by program impact evaluations. However, most impact evaluations have examined the effect of protected areas on deforestation. Studies that have extended these evaluations to more dynamic systems or different outcomes are less common, largely due to data availability. In these cases, simulations might prove to be a valuable tool for gaining an understanding of the potential range of program effect sizes. Here, we employ simulations of wetland drainage to estimate the impact of the United States Fish and Wildlife Service Small Wetlands Acquisition Program (SWAP) across a ten-year period in terms of wetland area, and breeding waterfowl and brood abundance in the Prairie Pothole Region of North Dakota, South Dakota, and Montana. Using our simulation results, we estimate a plausible range of program impact for the SWAP as an avoided loss of between 0.00% and 0.02% of the carrying capacity for broods and breeding waterfowl from 2008-2017. Despite the low programmatic impact that these results suggest, the perpetual nature of SWAP governance provides promising potential for a higher cumulative conservation impact in the long term if future wetland drainage occurs.

Pandemic refuges: Lessons from 2 years of COVID-19

This paper relates evidence from the COVID-19 pandemic to the concept of pandemic refuges, as developed in literature on global catastrophic risk. In this literature, a refuge is a place or facility designed to keep a portion of the population alive during extreme global catastrophes. COVID-19 is not the most extreme pandemic scenario, but it is nonetheless a very severe global event, and it therefore provides an important source of evidence. Through the first 2 years of the COVID-19 pandemic, several political jurisdictions have achieved low spread of COVID-19 via isolation from the rest of the world and can therefore classify as pandemic refuges. Their suppression and elimination of COVID-19 demonstrates the viability of pandemic refuges as a risk management measure. Whereas prior research emphasizes island nations as pandemic refuges, this paper uses case studies of China and Western Australia to show that other types of jurisdictions can also successfully function as pandemic refuges. The paper also refines the concept of pandemic refuges and discusses implications for future pandemics.

The cost of not acting: Delaying invasive grass management increases costs and threatens assets in a national park, northern Australia

Globally, invasive grasses are a major threat to protected areas (PAs) due to their ability to alter community structure and function, reduce biodiversity, and alter fire regimes. However, there is often a mismatch between the threat posed by invasive grasses and the management response. We document a case study of the spread and management of the ecosystem-transforming invasive grass, Andropogon gayanus Kunth. (gamba grass), in Litchfield National Park; an iconic PA in northern Australia that contains significant natural, cultural and social values. We undertook helicopter-based surveys of A. gayanus across 143,931 ha of Litchfield National Park in 2014 and 2021-2022. We used these data to parametrise a spatially-explicit spread model, interfaced with a management simulation model to predict 10-year patterns of spread, and associated management costs, under three scenarios. Our survey showed that between 2014 and 2021-22 A. gayanus spread by 9463 ha, and 47%. The gross A. gayanus infestation covered 29,713 ha of the total survey area, making it the largest national park infestation in Australia. A. gayanus had not been locally eradicated within the Park's small existing 'gamba grass eradication zone', and instead increased by 206 ha over the 7-year timeframe. Our modelled scenarios predict that without active management A. gayanus will continue spreading, covering 42,388 ha of Litchfield within a decade. Alternative scenarios predict that: (i) eradicating A. gayanus in the small existing eradication zone would likely protect 18% of visitor sites, and cost ∼AU$825,000 over 5 years - more than double the original predicted cost in 2014; or (ii) eradicating A. gayanus in a much larger eradication zone would likely protect 86% of visitor sites and several species of conservation significance, and cost ∼AU$6.6 million over 5 years. Totally eradicating A. gayanus from the Park is no longer viable due to substantial spread since 2014. Our study demonstrates the value of systematic landscape-scale surveys and costed management scenarios to enable assessment and prioritisation of weed management. It also demonstrates the increased environmental and financial costs of delaying invasive grass management, and the serious threat A. gayanus poses to PAs across northern Australia.

Australian agricultural resources: A national scale land capability map

Ongoing land clearing is a key driver of biodiversity loss and climate change. Effective action to halt land clearing and land degradation ultimately relies on understanding patterns of land capability for production uses, in particular agriculture, as a key driver of land use. Here we describe a national agricultural land capability map for Australia, based on harmonized state agricultural land capability datasets and modelled pastoral capability. State-level agricultural land capability datasets capture regional variations in crop selection and suitability. Hence, we reclassified these datasets to fit a nationally consistent land capability ranking scheme. For regions in which agricultural capability data was not available, we modelled agricultural and pastoral capability and mapped this to the same ranking scheme. The national land capability dataset fills an immediate knowledge need for Australia. This dataset has wide potential for utilization, such as for retrospective analysis of land use policies and prospective regional planning initiatives to ensure forward looking policies and land use plans optimize land allocation.

The benefits of Q + PPGIS for coupled human-natural systems research: A systematic review

Managing complex problems in socio-ecological systems (SES) requires innovative approaches, which account for multiple scales, large datasets, and diverse lived experiences. By combining two commonly utilized mixed-methods, public participation GIS (PPGIS) and Q-method (Q), Q + PPGIS has the potential to reveal competing agendas and reduce conflict, but its benefits and weaknesses are comparatively understudied. Using a systematic review, we evaluated how different studies have employed and implemented the Q + PPGIS method. We found 16 studies, comprising 30 publications, with considerable variation in their geographic foci, research disciplines, and addressed SES challenges. These studies exhibit a lack of cohesion between methodological design and implementation and the absence of a consistent application of the method. Nonetheless, Q + PPGIS offers a tool that can guide policy, better inform stakeholders, and reduce conflict based on misconceptions. Resolving the shortcomings identified here will broaden Q + PPGIS utility in geographically situating and representing multiple realities within complex socio-ecological systems challenges.

The minimum land area requiring conservation attention to safeguard biodiversity

Ambitious conservation efforts are needed to stop the global biodiversity crisis. In this study, we estimate the minimum land area to secure important biodiversity areas, ecologically intact areas, and optimal locations for representation of species ranges and ecoregions. We discover that at least 64 million square kilometers (44% of terrestrial area) would require conservation attention (ranging from protected areas to land-use policies) to meet this goal. More than 1.8 billion people live on these lands, so responses that promote autonomy, self-determination, equity, and sustainable management for safeguarding biodiversity are essential. Spatially explicit land-use scenarios suggest that 1.3 million square kilometers of this land is at risk of being converted for intensive human land uses by 2030, which requires immediate attention. However, a sevenfold difference exists between the amount of habitat converted in optimistic and pessimistic land-use scenarios, highlighting an opportunity to avert this crisis. Appropriate targets in the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework to encourage conservation of the identified land would contribute substantially to safeguarding biodiversity.

Grouped SPME Comparison of Floral Scent as a Method of Unlocking Phylogenetic Patterns in Volatiles

Global crop production rate has exceeded the availability of pollination services provided by managed honeybees, and habitat loss remains a key factor in the loss of wild pollinators. Revegetation of agricultural land and wild pollination may provide a solution; however, the collection of floral trait data that are correlated to pollinator preferences remains an under studied and complex process. Here, we demonstrate a method for scent analysis, ordination [non-metric dimensional scaling (NMDS)], and clustering outputs that provides a fast and reproducible procedure for a broad grouping of flora based on scent and unlocking characteristic inter-floral patterns. We report the floral profiles of 15 unstudied native Australian plant species and the extent to which they match the commonly cultivated seed crops of Daucus carota L and Brassica rapa L. Through solid-phase microextraction (SPME) paired with gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC-MS), we identify a set of inter-family shared, common floral volatiles from these plant species as well as unique and characteristic patterns.

Application of Atmospheric Solids Analysis Probe Mass Spectrometry for the Taxonomic Analysis of Pollen

Globally, both managed and wild pollination services are unable to meet current rates of crop production and pollination demand. Wild pollination services could be improved through the reforestation of agricultural land margins, however plant–pollinator networks remain poorly understood and the collection of key floral traits a complex process. Herein, we consider the merits of pollen as a floral trait and the application of a rapid pollen comparison method in assessing whether pollen traits are conserved at a taxonomic level. Reporting the previously unstudied, pollen fingerprints of 18 Australian plant species, these are compared against the seed crop Daucus carota L. and two naturalised Brassica hybrids. Applying atmospheric solids analysis probe mass spectrometry (ASAP-MS) for rapid pollen fingerprinting, pollens are compared through non-metric multidimensional scaling (NMDS), Jaccard index correlation and hierarchical clustering. Demonstrating the merits of this analytical method for the grouping of potential revegetation flora, we identify key pollen similarities and differences that could correlate with wild pollinator preferences.

Areas of global importance for conserving terrestrial biodiversity, carbon and water

To meet the ambitious objectives of biodiversity and climate conventions, the international community requires clarity on how these objectives can be operationalized spatially and how multiple targets can be pursued concurrently. To support goal setting and the implementation of international strategies and action plans, spatial guidance is needed to identify which land areas have the potential to generate the greatest synergies between conserving biodiversity and nature's contributions to people. Here we present results from a joint optimization that minimizes the number of threatened species, maximizes carbon retention and water quality regulation, and ranks terrestrial conservation priorities globally. We found that selecting the top-ranked 30% and 50% of terrestrial land area would conserve respectively 60.7% and 85.3% of the estimated total carbon stock and 66% and 89.8% of all clean water, in addition to meeting conservation targets for 57.9% and 79% of all species considered. Our data and prioritization further suggest that adequately conserving all species considered (vertebrates and plants) would require giving conservation attention to ~70% of the terrestrial land surface. If priority was given to biodiversity only, managing 30% of optimally located land area for conservation may be sufficient to meet conservation targets for 81.3% of the terrestrial plant and vertebrate species considered. Our results provide a global assessment of where land could be optimally managed for conservation. We discuss how such a spatial prioritization framework can support the implementation of the biodiversity and climate conventions.

Importance of species translocations under rapid climate change

Species that cannot adapt or keep pace with a changing climate are likely to need human intervention to shift to more suitable climates. While hundreds of articles mention using translocation as a climate-change adaptation tool, in practice, assisted migration as a conservation action remains rare, especially for animals. This is likely due to concern over introducing species to places where they may become invasive. However, there are other barriers to consider, such as time-frame mismatch, sociopolitical, knowledge and uncertainty barriers to conservationists adopting assisted migration as a go-to strategy. We recommend the following to advance assisted migration as a conservation tool: attempt assisted migrations at small scales, translocate species with little invasion risk, adopt robust monitoring protocols that trigger an active response, and promote political and public support.

Open Science principles for accelerating trait-based science across the Tree of Life

Synthesizing trait observations and knowledge across the Tree of Life remains a grand challenge for biodiversity science. Species traits are widely used in ecological and evolutionary science, and new data and methods have proliferated rapidly. Yet accessing and integrating disparate data sources remains a considerable challenge, slowing progress toward a global synthesis to integrate trait data across organisms. Trait science needs a vision for achieving global integration across all organisms. Here, we outline how the adoption of key Open Science principles-open data, open source and open methods-is transforming trait science, increasing transparency, democratizing access and accelerating global synthesis. To enhance widespread adoption of these principles, we introduce the Open Traits Network (OTN), a global, decentralized community welcoming all researchers and institutions pursuing the collaborative goal of standardizing and integrating trait data across organisms. We demonstrate how adherence to Open Science principles is key to the OTN community and outline five activities that can accelerate the synthesis of trait data across the Tree of Life, thereby facilitating rapid advances to address scientific inquiries and environmental issues. Lessons learned along the path to a global synthesis of trait data will provide a framework for addressing similarly complex data science and informatics challenges.