Protecting biodiversity and economic returns in resource rich tropical forests
File(s)
Published version
Author(s)
Ball, James CG
Burgman, Mark
Goldman, Elizabeth D
Lessman, Janeth
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
In pursuit of socioeconomic development, many countries are expanding oil and mineral extraction into tropical forests. These activities seed access to remote, biologically rich areas, thereby endangering global biodiversity. Here we demonstrate that conservation solutions that effectively balance the protection of biodiversity and economic revenues are possible in biologically valuable regions. Using spatial data on oil profits and predicted species and ecosystem extents, we optimise the protection of 741 terrestrial species and 20 ecosystems of the Ecuadorian Amazon, across a range of opportunity costs (i.e. sacrifices of extractive profit). For such an optimisation, giving up 5% of a year's oil profits (US$ 221 million) allows for a protected area network that retains of an average of 65% of the extent of each species/ecosystem. This performance far exceeds that of the network produced by simple land area optimisation which requires a sacrifice of approximately 40% of annual oil profits (US$ 1.7 billion), and uses only marginally less land, to achieve equivalent levels of ecological protection. Applying spatial statistics to remotely sensed, historic deforestation data, we further focus the optimisation to areas most threatened by imminent forest loss. We identify Emergency Conservation Targets: areas that are essential to a cost‐effective conservation reserve network and at imminent risk of destruction, thus requiring urgent and effective protection. Governments should employ the methods presented here when considering extractive led development options, to responsibly manage the associated ecological‐economic trade‐offs and protect natural capital.
Date Issued
2021-02
Date Acceptance
2020-05-06
Citation
Conservation Biology, 2021, 35 (1), pp.263-273
ISSN
0888-8892
Publisher
Wiley
Start Page
263
End Page
273
Journal / Book Title
Conservation Biology
Volume
35
Issue
1
Copyright Statement
© 2020 The Authors. Conservation Biology published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of Society for Conservation Biology
This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
License URL
Identifier
https://conbio.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/cobi.13534
Subjects
Science & Technology
Life Sciences & Biomedicine
Biodiversity Conservation
Ecology
Environmental Sciences
Biodiversity & Conservation
Environmental Sciences & Ecology
Amazon
biodiversity
Ecuador
fossil fuels
spatial conservation prioritization
trade-offs
OIL INDUSTRY
TRADE-OFFS
CONSERVATION
COSTS
DISTURBANCE
EFFICIENCY
DIVERSITY
POLLUTION
AREA
Amazon
Ecuador
biodiversity
fossil fuels
spatial conservation prioritisation
trade-offs
05 Environmental Sciences
06 Biological Sciences
07 Agricultural and Veterinary Sciences
Ecology
Publication Status
Published
Date Publish Online
2020-05-10