Systematic Conservation Planning

The biological resources of the Western Ghats are under threat due to deforestation and other anthropogenic activities. As monitoring and mapping the biodiversity is the first step in the systematic conservation planning, our study takes the initial step of documenting avifaunal diversity and distribution along the seasonal gradient and across five landscape elements. We monitored bird community in Tamhini, northern Western Ghats, across six seasons and five landscape elements using line transect method for two years. The data were analysed for a and b diversity. Maximum a diversity was reported in early winter, spring and summer. Disturbed areas with human interference showed maximum diversity. Season wise analysis revealed high b diversity, while in landscape element wise it was comparatively less. Our analysis suggests that the avifauna of Tamhini shows highly dynamic population changes, which could be attributed to north-south migration, local migration, breeding seasons, vegetation changes, food availability and availability of water. Our findings in the seasonal and landscape wise distribution of avifauna are important with respect to monitoring animal diversity and defining conservation strategies in the northern Western Ghats.

We welcome the attempts of to apply our global offsetability process (Pilgrim et al. 2012) to the French context: national adaptation is essential for testing and improving this process. We wholeheartedly agree that conserving common biodiversity is crucial for ecosystem functioning. Unfortunately, the authors misinterpret the purpose of our process. Far from recommending that offsets only be undertaken for impacts on rare biodiversity, our process is specifically intended to highlight the risks of offsetting impacts on biodiversity that is particularly vulnerable or irreplaceable, and/or where management opportunities are limited. Our approach thus emphasizes that offsets have a much higher chance of success for more common and widespread biodiversity.

Spatial management, including setting aside conservation areas, is central to curbing the global decline of biodiversity, but many threats originate from beyond the boundaries of conservation areas. This is a particular problem in marine systems, which are influenced by many activities on land. In addition, connections between land and sea support many species and ecological processes valued for conservation. Integrated land and sea conservation planning is therefore of utmost importance. We review the literature describing connections between land and sea and how they have been incorporated into conservation planning. Land-sea connections include land-sea processes, the natural flows occurring between realms; cross-system threats, which originate in one realm and affect another; and socioeconomic interactions associated with management decisions to maintain or restore land-sea processes and to prevent or mitigate cross-system threats. We highlight the need to explicitly incorporate land-sea connections in conservation planning and suggest ways of doing this through the use of a novel operational framework for integrated land-sea planning. On the basis of expert surveys and a literature review, we also identify those aspects of conservation planning for which improved integration between land and sea is most needed.

This article was originally published in the Encyclopedia of the Anthropocene published by Elsevier, and the attached copy is provided by Elsevier for the author's benefit and for the benefit of the author's institution, for non-commercial research and educational use including without limitation use in instruction at your institution, sending it to specific colleagues who you know, and providing a copy to your institution's administrator. All other uses, reproduction and distribution, including without limitation commercial reprints, selling or licensing copies or access, or posting on open internet sites, your personal or institution's website or repository, are prohibited. For exceptions, permission may be sought for such use through Elsevier's permissions site at: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/permissionusematerial Lacher I. (2018) Systematic Conservation Planning in the Anthropocene. In: Dominick A. DellaSala, and Michael I. Goldstein (eds.) The Encyclopedia of the Anthropocene, vol. 3, p. 461-469. Oxford: Elsevier.

Systematic conservation planning is essential in the justification and design of protected areas, especially in an era where every piece of land or water is at a high premium. We used satellite tracking data and regular monitoring of Greater flamingos into the spatial prioritization planning tool Marxan to identify the most important zones for the conservation of the greater flamingo and many other species of waterbirds and marine habitats in one of the economically important areas in the coastal zone of Abu Dhabi. Locations from 11 satellite tracked flamingos and monthly count data since 2009 in the Bul Syayeef area showed a predominant use of a relatively small area which when integrated in Marxan provided optimum boundary with minimum cost. Marxan identified 1, 5, 10 and 15 ha planning units and provided the best solution with 15 ha. The reduced total area of 145 km2 is nearly 40% of the originally proposed area for protection, is more pragmatic and easy to establish, given the high importance of the area for economic development. Using approximately the same boundary, the proposed area was declared a Ramsar site in September 2016 and was subsequently declared a protected area through a government decree in September 2017.

This study provides a comprehensive review of conservation information for Solomon Islands in support of Solomon Islands' commitment towards the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). We provide a GAP analysis of the natural resources of Solomon Islands, reviewing both terrestrial and marine habitats, and the degree to which they fall under existing conservation management. The information is also used to identify potential areas for action based on two divergent scenarios: avoidance of conflict, and seeking out areas requiring imminent action.

To provide the foundation for a freshwater conservation plan for KwaZulu-Natal, three-level hierarchical river and wetland type classifications, based on spatio-temporal scaling relationships, are proposed. This resolution of classification is appropriate for regional-or provincial-scale conservation planning. The hierarchical structure of the classifications provides scope for finer resolution, by the addition of further levels, for application at a sub-regional or municipal scale. The proposed classifications include 74 river and 16 wetland types. River typing incorporating a classification based on intra-annual flow patterns from 40 gauging weirs could not be accurately represented spatially. Research on testing the strengths of the relationships among environmental surrogates for biotic diversity is proposed.

Expert-based and systematic, algorithm-based approaches to identifying priority areas for conservation are sometimes posited as alternatives. While both approaches have pros and cons, the systematic approach does have the advantage of providing a regionwide assessment of the options for achieving explicit conservation targets. A distinct advantage of the expert-driven approach is its incorporation of expert knowledge on biodiversity persistence and pragmatic management and implementation issues not normally included in biodiversity feature-site data matrices. Given the widespread application of both approaches, surprisingly little research has been undertaken to evaluate their conservation planning outcomes. Here we compare priority conservation areas in South Africa's Cape Floristic Region identified by park managers and reserve-selection software. Managers identified 29 areas (a wishlist) that together, comprised 31% of the planning domain and had 40% of its area under some form of conservation management. This wishlist was assessed for the extent to which it achieved targets for biodiversity pattern and process over and above the existing conservation system, and its incorporation of priority areas identified in terms of conservation value and vulnerability to processes that threaten biodiversity. Overall, the wishlist reflected a desire by managers to improve management efficiency and facilitate rapid implementation by expanding existing, largely montane reserves into low-priority areas where land tenure is sympathetic to conservation. Consequently, it was not very effective and efficient in achieving pattern and process targets, and it excluded large areas of vulnerable and inadequately conserved lowland habitat-the areas currently in most need of conservation action. Further, it provided no basis for scheduling implementation or for exploring alternative areas to achieve the same goals, unlike systematic approaches. Nonetheless, the manager's wishlist did include many highly innovative and feasible projects that make important contributions to the conservation of the region's biodiversity. Rather than emphasize the dichotomy between expert and systematic approaches, conservation planners should devise ways of integrating them. In particular, priority areas identified by experts should be carefully considered against the backdrop of the outcomes of systematic conservation planning. #

Aim
Conservation conflict takes place where food production imposes a cost on wildlife conservation and vice versa. Where does conservation impose the maximum cost on production, by opposing the intensification and expansion of farmland? Where does conservation confer the maximum benefit on wildlife, by buffering and connecting protected areas with a habitable and permeable matrix of crop and non-crop habitat? Our aim was to map the costs and benefits of conservation versus production and thus to propose a conceptual framework for systematic conservation planning in agricultural landscapes.

Location
World-wide.

Methods
To quantify these costs and benefits, we used a geographic information system to sample the cropland of the world and map the proportion of non-crop habitat surrounding the cropland, the number of threatened vertebrates with potential to live in or move through the matrix and the yield gap of the cropland. We defined the potential for different types of conservation conflict in terms of interactions between habitat and yield (potential for expansion, intensification, both or neither). We used spatial scan statistics to find ‘hotspots’ of conservation conflict.

Results
All of the ‘hottest’ hotspots of conservation conflict were in sub-Saharan Africa, which could have impacts on sustainable intensification in this region.

Main conclusions
Systematic conservation planning could and should be used to identify hotspots of conservation conflict in agricultural landscapes, at multiple scales. The debate between ‘land sharing’ (extensive agriculture that is wildlife friendly) and ‘land sparing’ (intensive agriculture that is less wildlife friendly but also less extensive) could be resolved if sharing and sparing were used as different types of tool for resolving different types of conservation conflict (buffering and connecting protected areas by maintaining matrix quality, in different types of matrix). Therefore, both sharing and sparing should be prioritized in hotspots of conflict, in the context of countryside biogeography.

The Knersvlakte in the Succulent Karoo Biome (South Africa) is known for its high plant diversity and endemism. In the course of establishing a conservation area there, we assessed baseline data for future management. We investigated the effects of grazing on the vegetation in terms of species diversity and composition as well as reproduction of selected species. Data were sampled on four adjacent farms, which were ungrazed, moderately or intensively grazed by sheep and goats. The data were collected in 27 quartz and 24 non-quartz plots, representing two major habitat types of the region. Within each of the 1000-m 2 plots, 100 subplots of 400 cm 2 size were sampled. ANOVAs revealed that species richness and abundance of endemic species on quartz fields decreased with grazing. Abundance of annuals did not increase significantly due to grazing. Fidelity analyses indicated that species composition differed between grazing intensities and that the ungrazed and moderately grazed plots both contained unique locally endemic habitat specialists. Reproduction of two endemic dwarf shrubs Drosanthemum schoenlandianum and Argyroderma fissum (both Aizoaceae) increased under moderate grazing, which in the case of D. schoenlandianum was interpreted as an effect of grazing. We attribute the low number of seedlings and annuals on the moderately grazed farm to lower seasonal rainfall on these plots. From a conservation perspective, no or moderate grazing appear to be necessary to preserve plant diversity and vegetation patterns, and their underlying processes.

We assessed options for conserving the large-and medium-sized mammals indigenous to the Cape Floristic Region, South Africa, using systematic conservation planning, the first such attempt for an entire ecoregion. The potential distributions and abundances of the 41 extant species for the entire region prior to anthropogenic transformation of habitats were estimated. This was particularly useful as it obviated any reliance on records of occurrence for conservation planning. Areas that had not been transformed through agriculture or other developments were considered available for conservation. The fragments of untransformed habitat were identified as being large enough to support communities at least 25 individuals of the smallest herbivore species. Smaller fragments were not considered suitable for mammal conservation. Transformation and fragmentation had significant impacts on potential populations, and this was asymmetrical across species, being higher for lowland than montane species. The existing reserve system was estimated to effectively conserve only half the mammal species, using the criteria applied here. Two conservation goals were compared; first, either conserving only CFR endemics and threatened species; and second, conserving all the mammals (with some exceptions for marginally occurring species). Options for protected area systems were assessed using C-Plan, a decision support system designed for systematic conservation planning. The irreplaceability of the planning units varied only slightly under the two goals, and the more inclusive goal was used to develop a proposed reserve network in which targets for all the species were achieved. The CFR endemics and threatened species effectively function as umbrella species for the remaining mammals. This study demonstrates that the incorporation into systematic conservation plans of conservation targets adequate for the persistence of populations comprising communities across entire ecoregions is feasible. #

AimTo analyse spatial trade-offs in conservation of mammals, considering benefits of biodiversity conservation and socioeconomic costs.To analyse spatial trade-offs in conservation of mammals, considering benefits of biodiversity conservation and socioeconomic costs.LocationCerrado Biodiversity Hotspot, Brazil.Cerrado Biodiversity Hotspot, Brazil.MethodsWe built ecological niche models (ENMs) for 154 mammals inhabiting the cerrado. We combined model projections to produce consensus maps of species' distributions for three types of models (envelope, statistical and machine-learning models). We used these range summaries as input data in spatial prioritization analyses. We compared six conservation scenarios, considering human population density, land cost, anthropogenic land use, political willingness to act and the distribution of species using trade-off analyses. We complemented the current network of protected areas, aiming to achieve a target of 17% of land protection in the cerrado.We built ecological niche models (ENMs) for 154 mammals inhabiting the cerrado. We combined model projections to produce consensus maps of species' distributions for three types of models (envelope, statistical and machine-learning models). We used these range summaries as input data in spatial prioritization analyses. We compared six conservation scenarios, considering human population density, land cost, anthropogenic land use, political willingness to act and the distribution of species using trade-off analyses. We complemented the current network of protected areas, aiming to achieve a target of 17% of land protection in the cerrado.ResultsSpecies-rich sites coincide with regions with high human population, high land cost, high anthropogenic land use and diverse levels of political willingness to act. We found a significant change in spatial priorities when we included socioeconomic and political dimensions in analyses: top-priority sites moved north, reduced by 68% potential conservation conflicts with human population, reduced by 72% the total monetary cost of actions and reduced by 68% conflict with other anthropogenic land uses. It also increased by 80% the beneficial effect of political willingness to act.Species-rich sites coincide with regions with high human population, high land cost, high anthropogenic land use and diverse levels of political willingness to act. We found a significant change in spatial priorities when we included socioeconomic and political dimensions in analyses: top-priority sites moved north, reduced by 68% potential conservation conflicts with human population, reduced by 72% the total monetary cost of actions and reduced by 68% conflict with other anthropogenic land uses. It also increased by 80% the beneficial effect of political willingness to act.Main conclusionsOur results reinforce the idea that using only biological criteria for proposing spatial conservation priorities can undermine conservation plans given increases in socioeconomic and political conflicts.Our results reinforce the idea that using only biological criteria for proposing spatial conservation priorities can undermine conservation plans given increases in socioeconomic and political conflicts.

Mainland China has 2538 nature reserves, covering approximately 15% of its total land area. However, little is known of their effectiveness in capturing the country’s ecological diversity. We calculated the degree of representation of terrestrial ecoregions, biodiversity priority areas, and vegetation types within 2217 of these reserves for which spatial data were available. Of the total area set aside as nature reserves, almost 56% was concentrated in the three western provinces of Tibet, Qinghai, and Xinjiang. Of the 53 ecoregions found in China, 29 had over 10% of their land protected through the reserve system; in addition, most (81%) of China’s natural vegetation communities were represented in at least one nature reserve. On the basis of these findings, we recommend that China should (1) conduct a nationwide ecoregional biodiversity assessment; (2) establish a georeferenced (spatially referenced) database of nature reserves and other types of protected areas; (3) increase efforts to improve international cooperation regarding management of cross-border ecoregions; and (4) create or expand reserves in eastern and southern China, with a focus on protecting ecosystem services to help sustain local communities’ economies.

In a perfect world, systematic conservation planning would use complete information on the distribution of biodiversity. However, information on most species is grossly incomplete. Two main types of distribution data are frequently used in conservation planning: observed and predicted distribution data. A fundamental question that planners face is -which kind of data is better under what circumstances? We used simulation procedures to analyse the effects of using different types of distribution data on the performance of reserve selection algorithms in scenarios using different reserve selection problems, amounts of species distribution known, conservation targets and costs. To compare these scenarios we used occurrence data from 25 amphibian and 41 reptile species of the Iberian Peninsula and assumed the available data represented the whole truth. We then sampled fractions of these data and either used them as they were, or converted them to modelled predicted distributions. This enabled us to build three other types of species distribution data sets commonly used in conservation planning: ''predicted", ''transformed predicted" and ''mixed". Our results suggest that reserve selection performance is sensitive to the type of species distribution data used and that the most cost-efficient decision depends most on the reserve selection problem and on how much we have of the species distribution data. Choosing the most appropriate type of distribution data should start by evaluating the scenario circumstances. While there is no one best approach for every scenario, we discovered that using a mixed approach usually provides an acceptable compromise between species representation and cost.

For species that are increasingly threatened by the combined impacts of habitat loss and climate change, the identification of priority regions for conservation planning efforts is urgently required. In the case of specialist folivores, consideration of the effects of climate change on the distributions of their essential food resources should be a key component of conservation planning. The koala (Phascolarctos cinereus) was listed in 2012 as vulnerable under Australian Commonwealth Government law. Here, we incorporate species distribution models for the koala, an arboreal marsupial, and its specialized food resources, to identify broad-scale priority conservation regions. We demonstrate a spatial prioritization approach that informs conservation planning and that links the shifting distribution of this declining species and its critical food resources under climate change. We find that the inclusion of food plants affected the identification of priority regions for conserving koalas, and that priority regions for the conservation of this species are predicted to shift considerably, often outside the current range of this species, posing additional challenges for its conservation.

Coral reefs are in dire need of effective governance, yet the science and planning of coral reef protected areas largely stem from wealthy, developed nations, with very different social, economic, and cultural characteristics than the nations in which most coral reefs occur. Much has been written about coral reefs and the use of marine protected areas (MPAs) as a management tool, but emerging trends and recommendations have not been adequately synthesized for the context of developing nations. We found that 60% of studies on MPA design and planning are from North America, Australia, Europe and the Mediterranean. As a result, many recommendations about how best to design, implement and manage coral reef protected areas may need to be adapted to address the needs of other nations. Based on the literature and our experiences, we review three emerging trends in MPA design and management, and relate these to the context of coral reef developing nations. First, MPA design is evolving to merge community (usually bottomup) and regional (usually top-down) planning approaches. Second, the increasing recognition that social and ecological systems are tightly coupled is leading to planning and management of MPAs that better incorporate the human dimensions of reef systems and their linkages with reef ecology. Finally, there has been a trend toward adaptive management of MPAs and the emergence of related ideas about adaptive planning. These three trends provide crucial and much needed opportunities for improving MPAs and their effectiveness in coral reef nations.

Salinas systems are artificial wetlands which are interesting from the viewpoint of nature conservation. They play an important role both as habitats for migratory waterbird species and as nodes of biotic connectivity networks. In the Mediterranean basin, where the coastal salinas are highly significant as alternative and complementary habitats for waterbirds, a process of abandonment occurs, and many seminatural systems of this kind are disappearing. This abandonment is having serious consequences for migratory bird populations and for the ecological role these play. In the present paper, this group of waterbird species has been used to evaluate these wetlands for conservation purposes. We have developed a methodological approach for the selection of ecological indicators for the conservation and management of these Mediterranean habitats and waterbird assemblages, the main consumers therein. The stepwise procedure developed constitutes a practical tool for this task. Application thereof enabled us to differentiate the habitats available for the waterbirds and to identify the biotic and abiotic indicators for the maintenance and management of the salina ecosystems. These variables can then be incorporated into monitoring programs.

Ecological restoration is an increasingly important tool for managing and improving highly degraded or altered environments. Faced with a large number of sites or ecosystems to restore, and a diverse array of restoration approaches, investments in ecological restoration must be prioritized. Nevertheless, there are relatively few examples of the systematic prioritization of restoration actions. The development of a general theory for ecological restoration that is sufficiently sophisticated and robust to account for the inherent complexity of restoration planning, and yet is flexible and adaptable to ensure applicability to a diverse array of restoration problems is needed. In this paper we draw on principles from systematic conservation planning to explicitly formulate the 'restoration prioritization problem'. We develop a generalized theory for static and dynamic restoration planning problems, and illustrate how the basic problem formulation can be expanded to allow for many factors characteristic of restoration problems, including spatial dependencies, the possibility of restoration failure, and the choice of multiple restoration techniques. We illustrate the applicability of our generic problem definition by applying it to a case study -restoration prioritization on The Irvine Ranch Natural Landmark in Southern California. Through this case study we illustrate how the definition of the general restoration problem can be extended to account for the specific constraints and considerations of an on-the-ground restoration problem.

The waters of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) host a diversity of marine and coastal habitats that are under increasing pressure from multiple anthropogenic activities related to rapid economic growth. In response, Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) currently cover 12% of the UAE’s coastal and marine zones. The UAE National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan aims to increase the extent of protection to 14% by 2021, a target that exceeds current global commitments. We applied systematic conservation planning to (1) assess whether conservation features (i.e. species and habitats of conservation concern) are adequately represented in the current system of MPAs, and (2) identify complementary coastal and marine priority areas for conservation and management. Eight planning scenarios were produced based on different conservation targets, the inclusion (or not) of existing MPAs in the generated solutions, and the consideration (or not) of dredging (an activity linked with coastal development in the UAE). A gap analysis demonstrated that to achieve the targets set by experts for all conservation features, additional areas would need to be integrated in conservation plans and policies. Key coastal and marine priority areas were consistently selected for conservation across all planning scenarios. The findings of this work provide a basis for the identification of conservation priorities that can be embedded in the current network of MPAs by extending their boundaries, in post-2020 conservation strategies including plans for creating new MPAs, and in broader spatial planning initiatives.

Marxan is the most widely used conservation planning software in the world and is designed for solving complex conservation planning problems in landscapes and seascapes. In this paper we describe a substantial extension of Marxan called Marxan with Zones, a decision support tool that provides landuse zoning options in geographical regions for biodiversity conservation. We describe new functions designed to enhance the original Marxan software and expand on its utility as a decision support tool. The major new element in the decision problem is allowing any parcel of land or sea to be allocated to a specific zone, not just reserved or unreserved. Each zone then has the option of its own actions, objectives and constraints, with the flexibility to define the contribution of each zone to achieve targets for pre-specified features (e.g. species or habitats). The objective is to minimize the total cost of implementing the zoning plan while ensuring a variety of conservation and land-use objectives are achieved. We outline the capabilities, limitations and additional data requirements of this new software and perform a comparison with the original version of Marxan. We feature a number of case studies to demonstrate the functionality of the software and highlight its flexibility to address a range of complex spatial planning problems. These studies demonstrate the design of multiple-use marine parks in both Western Australia and California, and the zoning of forest use in East Kalimantan.

There has been increasing recognition within systematic conservation planning of the need to include social data alongside biophysical assessments. However, in the approaches to identify potential conservation sites, there remains much room for improvement in the treatment of social data. In particular, few rigorous methods to account for the diversity of less-easily quantifiable social attributes that influence the implementation success of conservation sites (such as willingness to conserve) have been developed. We use a case-study analysis of private conservation areas within the Little Karoo, South Africa, as a practical example of the importance of incorporating social data into the process of selecting potential conservation sites to improve their implementation likelihood. We draw on extensive data on the social attributes of our case study obtained from a combination of survey questionnaires and semi-structured interviews. We discuss the need to determine the social attributes that are important for achieving the chosen implementation strategy by offering four tested examples of important social attributes in the Little Karoo: the willingness of landowners to take part in a stewardship arrangement, their willingness to conserve, their capacity to conserve, and the social capital among private conservation area owners. We then discuss the process of using an implementation likelihood ratio (derived from a combined measure of the social attributes) to assist the choice of potential conservation sites. We conclude by summarizing our discussion into a simple conceptual framework for identifying biophysically-valuable sites which possess a high likelihood that the desired implementation strategy will be realized on them.

Indicator species groups are often used as surrogates for overall biodiversity in conservation planning because inventories of multiple taxa are rare, especially in the tropics where most biodiversity is found. At coarse spatial scales most studies show congruence in the distribution of species richness and of endemic and threatened species of different species groups. At finer spatial scale levels however, cross-taxon congruence patterns are much more ambiguous. In this study we investigated cross-taxon patterns in the distribution of species richness of trees, birds and bats across four tropical forest types in a ca. 100 9 35 km area in the Northern Sierra Madre region of Luzon Island, Philippines. A non-parametric species richness estimator (Chao1) was used to compensate for differential sample sizes, sample strategies and completeness of species richness assessments. We found positive but weak congruence in the distribution of all and endemic tree and bird and tree and bat species richness across the four forest types; strong positive congruence in the distribution of all and endemic bat and bird species richness and low or negative congruence in the distribution of globally threatened species between trees, birds and bats. We also found weak cross-taxon congruence in the complementarity of pairs of forest types in species richness between trees and birds and birds and bats but strong congruence in complementarity of forest pairs between trees and bats. This study provides further evidence that congruence in the distribution of different species groups is often ambiguous at fine to moderate spatial scales. Low or ambiguous cross-taxon congruence complicates the use of indicator species and species groups as a surrogate for biodiversity in general for local systematic conservation planning.

A framework for systematic conservation planning for biodiversity is presented with an emphasis on the Indian context. The use of this framework is then illustrated by the analysis of two data 25 sets from the Indian region consisting of environmental and physical parameters that serve as surrogates for biodiversity. The first data set included the entire region while the second was limited to the eastern Himalayas. For different ecoregions, the surrogate sets that were used achieve different levels of representation when they are used to select conservation area networks. Tentative results indicate that these surrogates are successful in selecting most areas 30 known from fieldwork to have high biodiversity content such as the broadleaf and subalpine conifer forests of the Eastern Himalayas. However, areas not known to be high in biodiversity content are also selected such as the coast of the Arabian Sea. Areas selected to satisfy a 10 % target of representation for the complete surrogate set provide representation for 46.03 % of the ecoregions in the entire study area. A disproportionately small number of cells is selected in the 35 Western Ghats, a hotspot of vascular plant endemism. At the same target level, restricted surrogate sets represent 33.33 % of the ecoregions in the entire study area and 46.67 % of the ecoregions in the Eastern Himalayas. Finally, it is pointed out that any more sophisticated use of such systematic methods will require the assembly of Geographical Information Systems (GIS)based biogeographical data sets on a regional scale. 40

To date, the predominant use of systematic conservation planning has been to evaluate and conserve areas of high terrestrial biodiversity. Although studies in freshwater ecosystems have received recent attention, research has rarely considered the potential tradeoffs between protecting different dimensions of biodiversity and the ecological processes that maintain diversity. We provide the first systematic prioritization for freshwaters (focusing on the highly threatened and globally distinct fish fauna of the Lower Colorado River Basin, USA) simultaneously considering scenarios of: taxonomic, functional, and phylogenetic
diversity; contemporary threats to biodiversity (including interactions with nonnative species); and future climate change and human population growth. There was 75% congruence between areas of highest conservation priority for different aspects of biodiversity, suggesting that conservation efforts can concurrently achieve strong complementarity among all types of
diversity. However, sizable fractions of the landscape were incongruent across conservation priorities for different diversity scenarios, underscoring the importance of considering multiple
dimensions of biodiversity and highlighting catchments that contribute disproportionately to taxonomic, functional, and phylogenetic diversity in the region. Regions of projected human
population growth were not concordant with conservation priorities; however, higher human population abundance will likely have indirect effects on native biodiversity by increasing demand for water. This will come in direct conflict with projected reductions in precipitation and warmer temperatures, which have substantial overlap with regions of high contemporary diversity. Native and endemic fishes in arid ecosystems are critically endangered by both current and future threats, but our results highlight the use of systematic conservation planning for the optimal allocation of limited resources that incorporates multiple and complementary conservation values describing taxonomic, functional, and phylogenetic diversity.

The field of systematic conservation planning has grown substantially, with hundreds of publications in the peer-reviewed literature and numerous applications to regional conservation planning globally. However, the extent to which systematic conservation plans have influenced management is unclear. This paper analyses factors that facilitate the transition from assessment to implementation in conservation planning, in order to help integrate assessment and implementation into a seamless process. We propose a framework for designing implementation strategies, taking into account three critical planning aspects: processes, inputs, and context. Our review identified sixteen processes, which we broadly grouped into four themes and eight inputs. We illustrate how the framework can be used to inform context-dependent implementation strategies, using the process of 'engagement' as an example. The example application includes both lessons learned from successfully implemented plans across the engagement spectrum, and highlights key barriers that can hinder attempts to bridge the assessment-implementation gap.

Climate change is driving shifts in social-ecological systems globally. In response, humans must adapt to altered climatic and environmental conditions. While climate change adaptation is a pressing issue in many sectors and regions, the adaptation of environmental management strategies is particularly urgent because of the severity and extent of risks associated with projected impacts. Robust adaptation of environmental management requires effective spatial and temporal implementation of interventions, with explicit consideration of trade-offs between different socioeconomic and environmental objectives. We investigate the critical interface between regional governance systems and spatial planning for climate adaptation by exploring the case of Australia's Natural Resource Management (NRM) bodies. Australia's NRM bodies provide an ideal case study for two reasons. First, Australia faces significant threats from current and future climate changes. Second, Australian NRM bodies have recently undertaken a major program of spatial planning and research to explicitly address the need for climate adaptation. We explore the interface between regional governance systems and spatial planning by: 1) reviewing the historical development of institutional arrangements in relation to spatial planning by Australia's regional NRM bodies; 2) documenting current planning processes with regard to climate adaptation and more generally; and 3) identifying strengths and weaknesses of the existing governance system at various scales with respect to its ability to foster effective spatial planning. We find that the institutional and resource capacity of the Australian regional NRM bodies is currently being eroded and that the national governance system is broadly failing to deliver on the intended outcomes of climate-ready NRM plans. We make recommendations for governance reform and institutional adaptation to improve spatial planning for climate adaptation in Australia and discuss the broader implications of our findings.

In a perfect world, systematic conservation planning would use complete information on the distribution of biodiversity. However, information on most species is grossly incomplete. Two main types of distribution data are frequently used in conservation planning: observed and predicted distribution data. A fundamental question that planners face is -which kind of data is better under what circumstances? We used simulation procedures to analyse the effects of using different types of distribution data on the performance of reserve selection algorithms in scenarios using different reserve selection problems, amounts of species distribution known, conservation targets and costs. To compare these scenarios we used occurrence data from 25 amphibian and 41 reptile species of the Iberian Peninsula and assumed the available data represented the whole truth. We then sampled fractions of these data and either used them as they were, or converted them to modelled predicted distributions. This enabled us to build three other types of species distribution data sets commonly used in conservation planning: ''predicted", ''transformed predicted" and ''mixed". Our results suggest that reserve selection performance is sensitive to the type of species distribution data used and that the most cost-efficient decision depends most on the reserve selection problem and on how much we have of the species distribution data. Choosing the most appropriate type of distribution data should start by evaluating the scenario circumstances. While there is no one best approach for every scenario, we discovered that using a mixed approach usually provides an acceptable compromise between species representation and cost.

Most of the science and practice of conservation planning has focused on terrestrial environments (Vance-Borland et al. 2008), just as this book has, with similarly threatened marine and freshwater systems receiving less attention. In contrast to land, anthropogenic changes to marine and freshwater systems are less easily observed and, until recently, the phrase "out of sight, out of mind" aptly applied to the conservation of these systems. As human impacts on marine and freshwater systems have become increasingly apparent (e.g., fisheries collapses), there has been an increasing realization that these ecosystems require protection, better resource management, and conservation (Nel et al. 2009; Sala and Knowlton 2006). Biodiversity in marine and freshwater is declining alarmingly, and humans are starting to feel the effects of reductions in ecosystem services (Worm et al. 2006). Increased conservation of marine and freshwater systems is therefore necessary, and a key part of these efforts will be conservation planning. The goals of this chapter are to provide an overview of established good practices in marine and freshwater conservation planning, highlight distinctive characteristics of marine and freshwater systems important for their conservation, and place these systems in the broader framework of conservation planning (Margules and Pressey 2000; Pressey and Bottrill 2009). We highlight elements of marine and freshwater systems that differ both from each other and from terrestrial systems, and discuss how these differences influence approaches to planning. Also, despite some differences between aquatic and terrestrial systems, many of the principles, lessons, tools, and techniques for terrestrial conservation planning described in other chapters of this book can be adapted to marine and freshwater systems. We also pinpoint some emerging and cuttingedge conservation issues and practices, but the predominant focus of this chapter is on established good practices.

Integer linear programs Heuristic algorithms Optimization Efficiency A B S T R A C T Systematic approaches to efficient reserve network design often make use of one of two types of site selection algorithm; linear programs or heuristic algorithms. Unlike with linear programs, heuristic algorithms have been demonstrated to yield suboptimal networks in that more sites are selected in order to meet conservation goals than may be necessary or fewer features are captured than is possible. Although the degree of suboptimality is not known when using heuristics, some researchers have suggested that it is not significant in most cases and that heuristics are preferred since they are more flexible and can yield a solution more quickly. Using eight binary datasets, we demonstrate that suboptimality of numbers of sites selected and biodiversity features protected can occur to various degrees depending on the dataset, the model design, and the type of heuristic applied, and that processing time is not dramatically different between optimal and heuristic algorithms. In choosing an algorithm, the degree of suboptimality may not always be as important to planners as the perception that optimal solvers have feasibility issues, and therefore heuristic algorithms might continue to be a popular tool for conservation planning. We conclude that for many datasets, feasibility of optimal algorithms should not be a concern and that the value of heuristic results can be greatly improved by using optimal algorithms to determine the degree of suboptimality of the results.