Protecting biodiversity and economic returns in resource‐rich tropical forests

Autor: Elizabeth Dow Goldman, Janeth Lessmann, James G. C. Ball, Mark A. Burgman
Rok vydání: 2020
Předmět:
0106 biological sciences
EFFICIENCY
Opportunity cost
Natural resource economics
Biodiversity & Conservation
CONSERVATION
05 Environmental Sciences
DIVERSITY
Biodiversity
Environmental Sciences & Ecology
010603 evolutionary biology
01 natural sciences
POLLUTION
07 Agricultural and Veterinary Sciences
spatial conservation prioritization
fossil fuels
DISTURBANCE
spatial conservation prioritisation
Amazon
Ecology
Evolution
Behavior and Systematics
biodiversity
Nature and Landscape Conservation
Science & Technology
Ecology
OIL INDUSTRY
business.industry
010604 marine biology & hydrobiology
AREA
TRADE-OFFS
06 Biological Sciences
Natural resource
Petroleum industry
Threatened species
Biodiversity Conservation
Ecuador
Natural capital
Protected area
business
Life Sciences & Biomedicine
Environmental Sciences
COSTS
Global biodiversity
Zdroj: Conservation Biology. 35:263-273
ISSN: 1523-1739
0888-8892
DOI: 10.1111/cobi.13534
Popis: 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. Article Impact Statement: Governments controlling resource extraction from tropical forests can arrange production and conservation to retain biodiversity and profits. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.
Databáze: OpenAIRE
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