Berio Fortini Lucas, Leopold Christina R, Amidon Fred, Leopold Devin R, Fretz J Scott, Jacobi James D, Mehrhoff Loyal, Price Jonathan P, Duvall Fern, Keir Matthew, Oppenheimer Hank, Weisenberger Lauren, Sutter Robert
Pacific Island Ecosystems Research Center, U.S. Geological Survey, Hawai'i National Park, Hawai'i, USA.
Hawai'i Cooperative Studies Unit, University of Hawai'i at Hilo, Hilo, Hawai'i, USA.
Conserv Biol. 2025 Jun;39(3):e14421. doi: 10.1111/cobi.14421. Epub 2024 Nov 19.
In the face of unprecedented ecological changes, the conservation community needs strategies to recover species at risk of extinction. On the Island of Maui, we collaborated with species experts and managers to assist with climate-resilient recovery planning for 36 at-risk native plant species by identifying priority areas for the management of recovery populations. To do this, we developed a tailored spatial conservation prioritization (SCP) approach distinguished by its emphasis on transparency, flexibility, and expert (TFE) engagement. Our TFE SCP approach consisted of 2 iterative steps: first, the generation of multiple candidate conservation footprints (i.e., prioritization solutions) with a flexible greedy algorithm that reflects conservation practitioners' priorities and, second, the selection of an optimal conservation footprint based on the consideration of trade-offs in expert-agreed criteria among footprints. This process maximized buy-in by involving conservation practitioners and experts throughout, from setting goals to reviewing optimization data, defining optimization rules, and designating planning units meaningful to practitioners. We minimized the conservation footprint area necessary to meet recovery goals while incorporating species-specific measures of habitat suitability and climate resilience and retaining species-specific information for guiding recovery efforts. Our approach reduced the overall necessary conservation area by 36%, compared with selecting optimal recovery habitats for each species separately, and still identified high-quality habitat for individual species. Compared with prioritizr (an existing SCP tool), our approach identified a conservation area of equal size but with higher quality habitat. By integrating the strengths of existing techniques in a flexible and transparent design, our approach can address natural resource management constraints and provide outputs suitable for local recovery planning, consequently enhancing engagement and buy-in from conservation practitioners and experts. It demonstrates a step forward in making conservation planning more responsive to real-world complexities and helps reduce barriers to implementation for local conservation practitioners.
面对前所未有的生态变化，保护界需要制定策略来拯救濒临灭绝的物种。在毛伊岛，我们与物种专家和管理者合作，通过确定恢复种群管理的优先区域，协助制定36种濒危本地植物物种的气候适应恢复计划。为此，我们开发了一种量身定制的空间保护优先级（SCP）方法，其特点是强调透明度、灵活性和专家（TFE）参与。我们的TFE SCP方法包括两个迭代步骤：首先，使用反映保护从业者优先事项的灵活贪婪算法生成多个候选保护足迹（即优先级解决方案）；其次，在考虑足迹之间专家认可标准的权衡基础上，选择最佳保护足迹。这个过程通过让保护从业者和专家全程参与，从设定目标到审查优化数据、定义优化规则以及指定对从业者有意义的规划单元，最大限度地获得了各方支持。我们在纳入特定物种的栖息地适宜性和气候适应措施并保留用于指导恢复工作的特定物种信息的同时，将实现恢复目标所需的保护足迹面积最小化。与分别为每个物种选择最佳恢复栖息地相比，我们的方法将总体所需保护面积减少了36%，同时仍为单个物种确定了高质量的栖息地。与prioritizr（一种现有的SCP工具）相比，我们的方法确定的保护区面积相同，但栖息地质量更高。通过在灵活透明的设计中整合现有技术的优势，我们的方法可以解决自然资源管理的限制，并提供适合当地恢复规划的输出结果，从而增强保护从业者和专家的参与度和支持度。它表明在使保护规划更能应对现实世界的复杂性方面向前迈进了一步，并有助于减少当地保护从业者的实施障碍。
