Conservation prioritization can resolve the flagship species conundrum.

Area of Science:

• Conservation Biology
• Biodiversity Science
• Wildlife Management

Background:

• Charismatic flagship species (e.g., tigers, elephants) are effective at attracting conservation funding.
• Critics argue that species-focused conservation may be inefficient and not benefit overall biodiversity.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate if the flagship species approach can be reconciled with cost-effective biodiversity conservation.
• To determine if prioritizing flagship species impedes or enhances biodiversity representation.

Main Methods:

• Developed a tailored prioritization approach to identify areas with flagship species that also maximize global biodiversity representation.
• Included 19,616 terrestrial and freshwater species in the biodiversity assessment.
• Compared results with scenarios solely focused on maximizing biodiversity representation.

Main Results:

• The flagship-based prioritization approach achieved 79-89% of the objective for maximizing biodiversity representation.
• This indicates that flagship species can be integrated into cost-effective conservation strategies.
• The approach successfully identified areas that benefit both flagship species and broader biodiversity.

Conclusions:

• The flagship species approach does not necessarily impede cost-effective conservation.
• Prudently selected flagship species can effectively raise conservation funds.
• These funds can be strategically directed to maximize biodiversity conservation outcomes.