Why conservation planning needs socioeconomic data
- Departments of Applied Economics and Ecology, Evolution and Behavior, University of Minnesota, 1994 Buford Avenue, St. Paul, MN 55112
Over the past century, human population has expanded rapidly, much to the detriment of many other species that coinhabit the earth. There are roughly four times as many people alive now as there were in 1900. Economic activity has increased even more rapidly than population as evidenced by rising standards of living in most parts of the world. The vast expansion of human activity has led to widespread conversion of natural habitat, the spread of exotic invasive species, changes in nutrient flows, pollution, climate change, and overharvesting. The combined effect of these impacts has put many species at risk of extinction. Projections for continued human population growth and further economic expansion will further increase the risks to biodiversity.
Setting Conservation Priorities
In the face of these large-scale anthropogenic threats to biodiversity and the limited resources devoted to conservation, especially in low-income tropical countries that are home to the majority of species, public and private conservation organizations have been forced by necessity to set priorities. What are the most important places and the most important actions needed to conserve biodiversity? What takes precedence and what can wait? In their article in a recent issue of PNAS, “Cost-effective global conservation spending is robust to taxonomic group,” Bode et al. (1) provide important advice …
*E-mail: polasky{at}umn.edu
