Landscape-scale Conservation Planning

Hugh P. Possingham Landscape-scale conservation planning is coming of age. In the last couple of decades, conservation practitioners, working at all levels of governance and all spatial scales, have embraced the CARE principles of conservation planning – Comprehensiveness, Adequacy, Representativeness, and Efficiency. Hundreds of papers have been written on this theme, and several different kinds of software program have been developed and used around the world, making conservation planning based on these principles global in its reach and influence. Does this mean that all the science of conservation planning is over – that the discovery phase has been replaced by an engineering phase as we move from defining the rules to implementing them in the landscape? This book and the continuing growth in the literature suggest that the answer to this question is most definitely ‘no. ’ All of applied conservation can be wrapped up into a single sentence: what should be done (the action), in what place, at what time, using what mechanism, and for what outcome (the objective). It all seems pretty simple – what, where, when, how and why. However stating a problem does not mean it is easy to solve.

This book applies the latest thinking and techniques of systematic conservation planning to the issues that arise in protecting ecosystem pattern and process in human-dominated landscapes such as seascapes, multiple countries and conservation targets.

Hugh P. Possingham Landscape-scale conservation planning is coming of age. In the last couple of decades, conservation practitioners, working at all levels of governance and all spatial scales, have embraced the CARE principles of conservation planning – Comprehensiveness, Adequacy, Representativeness, and Efficiency. Hundreds of papers have been written on this theme, and several different kinds of software program have been developed and used around the world, making conservation planning based on these principles global in its reach and influence. Does this mean that all the science of conservation planning is over – that the discovery phase has been replaced by an engineering phase as we move from defining the rules to implementing them in the landscape? This book and the continuing growth in the literature suggest that the answer to this question is most definitely ‘no. ’ All of applied conservation can be wrapped up into a single sentence: what should be done (the action), in what place, at what time, using what mechanism, and for what outcome (the objective). It all seems pretty simple – what, where, when, how and why. However stating a problem does not mean it is easy to solve.

Introduction: Creating a Context for Landscape-Scale Conservation Planning.- Identifying Keystone Threats to Biological Diversity.- Why History Matters in Conservation Planning.- Developing Institutions to Overcome Governance Barriers to Ecoregional Conservation.- Changing Socio-economic Conditions for Private Woodland Protection.- Aquatic Conservation Planning at a Landscape Scale.- From the Last of the Large to the Remnants of the Rare: Bird Conservation at an Ecoregional Scale.- The Transboundary Nature of Seabird Ecology.- Conservation Planning with Large Carnivores and Ungulates in Eastern North America: Learning from the Past to Plan for the Future.- Protecting Natural Resources on Private Lands: The Role of Collaboration in Land-Use Planning.- Integrating Expert Judgment into Systematic Ecoregional Conservation Planning.- The GIS Challenges of Ecoregional Conservation Planning.- The Human Footprint as a Conservation Planning Tool.- Assessing Irreplaceability for Systematic Conservation Planning.- Conservation Planning in a Changing Climate: Assessing the Impacts of Potential Range Shifts on a Reserve Network.- Modeling Ecoregional Connectivity.- A General Model for Site-Based Conservation in Human-Dominated Landscapes: The Landscape Species Approach.- Integrating Ecoregional Planning at Greater Spatial Scales.