What is the price of conservation? A review of the status quo and recommendations for improving cost reporting
File(s)
Published version
Author(s)
White, Thomas B
Petrovan, Silviu O
Christie, Alec P
Martin, Philip A
Sutherland, William J
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Wildlife conservation is severely limited by funding. Therefore, to maximize biodiversity outcomes, assessing financial costs of interventions is as important as assessing effectiveness. We reviewed the reporting of costs in studies testing the effectiveness of conservation interventions: 13.3% of the studies provided numeric costs, and 8.8% reported total costs. Even fewer studies broke down these totals into constituent costs, making it difficult to assess the relevance of costs to different contexts. Cost reporting differed between continents and the taxa or habitats targeted by interventions, with higher cost reporting in parts of the Global South. A further analysis of data focused on mammals identified that interventions related to agriculture, invasive species, transport, and residential development reported costs more frequently. We identify opportunities for conservationists to improve future practice through encouraging systematic reporting and collation of intervention costs, using economic evaluation tools, and increasing understanding and skills in finance and economics.
Date Issued
2022-05-23
Date Acceptance
2022-03-01
Citation
Bioscience, 2022, 72 (5), pp.461-471
ISSN
0006-3568
Publisher
OXFORD UNIV PRESS
Start Page
461
End Page
471
Journal / Book Title
Bioscience
Volume
72
Issue
5
Copyright Statement
© The Author(s) 2022. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the American Institute of Biological Sciences. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted reuse, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
License URL
Identifier
https://www.webofscience.com/api/gateway?GWVersion=2&SrcApp=PARTNER_APP&SrcAuth=LinksAMR&KeyUT=WOS:000772985500001&DestLinkType=FullRecord&DestApp=ALL_WOS&UsrCustomerID=a2bf6146997ec60c407a63945d4e92bb
Subjects
ALLOCATION
BENEFITS
BIODIVERSITY CONSERVATION
Biology
cost-effectiveness
decision-making
ECONOMICS
effectiveness
efficiency
evidence-based conservation
INVESTMENT
Life Sciences & Biomedicine
Life Sciences & Biomedicine - Other Topics
MANAGEMENT
RESOURCES
RETURN
Science & Technology
Publication Status
Published
Coverage Spatial
England
Date Publish Online
2022-03-23