Systematic Conservation Planning

Systematic Conservation Planning provides a clear, comprehensive guide to the process of deriving conservation area networks that will represent biodiversity in cost-effective ways. The measurement of biodiversity, the design of field collections to sample biodiversity and data treatment methods together provide baseline information on the distribution patterns of biodiversity. The book then describes methods for identifying biodiversity priority areas underpinned by the concept of complementarity. It goes on to describe how biodiversity targets can be set and how multi-criteria analyses can incorporate costs and other constraints into the area selection process, enabling trade-offs between production and protection to be made. The book finishes with a series of case studies and a conclusion that emphasizes the socio-economic and cultural contexts in which conservation planning takes place. A clear procedure is provided for identifying biodiversity priority areas, underpinned by current best science practice and sound common sense, making this volume of interest not only to graduate students and academic conservation biologists, but also planners and decision-makers dealing with natural resource management together with conservation NGOs. Book jacket.

Chris Margules is Executive Director at the Melanesia Centre for Biodiversity Conservation, Conservation International Sahotra Sarkar is a Professor in the Section of Integrative Biology at the University of Texas at Austin