Conservation planning for biodiversity and wilderness: a real-world example.

Area of Science:

• Conservation Science
• Biodiversity Management
• Ecosystem Services

Background:

• Existing conservation prioritization methods often focus on single biodiversity dimensions, like species coverage (hotspots, complementarity) or ecosystem properties (wilderness).
• Comparisons between these approaches have frequently overlooked the multidimensional nature of biodiversity.
• Local-scale zoning of protected areas is recognized as a strategy to enhance conservation effectiveness.

Purpose of the Study:

• To analyze and compare the outcomes of species-based (hotspots, complementarity) and ecosystem-based (wilderness) conservation approaches at a local scale.
• To evaluate these approaches against criteria including species representativeness, wilderness coverage, and importance for megafauna and ecosystem services.
• To inform conservation planning by highlighting the need to address biodiversity's multidimensionality.

Main Methods:

• Utilized data from the Peneda-Gerês National Park management plan in Portugal for local-scale analysis.
• Compared three distinct conservation prioritization methodologies: hotspots, complementarity, and wilderness.
• Assessed the selected areas based on four key criteria: species representativeness, wilderness coverage, megafauna importance, and ecosystem service provision.

Main Results:

• Species-based and ecosystem-based conservation approaches identified significantly different areas at the local scale.
• No single approach effectively addressed all measured dimensions of biodiversity.
• Species-based methods excelled in covering species distributions, while the ecosystem-based approach prioritized wilderness, megafauna habitats, and ecosystem services.

Conclusions:

• Conservation actions targeting different biodiversity dimensions can lead to conflicting outcomes and trade-offs, particularly within European biodiversity policy contexts.
• Effective local-scale biodiversity management and zoning must acknowledge and integrate the multidimensionality of biodiversity.
• A combined application of species- and ecosystem-based approaches at the local level is essential for achieving broader conservation objectives.