Conservation planning for people and nature in a Chilean biodiversity hotspot

Loading...
Thumbnail Image
File version

Version of Record (VoR)

Author(s)
Jose Martinez-Harms, Maria
Wilson, Kerrie A
Costa, Micheli DP
Possingham, Hugh P
Gelcich, Stefan
Chauvenet, Alienor
Pliscoff, Patricio
Marquet, Pablo A
Bryan, Brett A
Griffith University Author(s)
Primary Supervisor
Other Supervisors
Editor(s)
Date
2021
Size
File type(s)
Location
Abstract

The Mediterranean-type climate region of Chile is a globally unique biodiversity hotspot but its protected area system does not adequately represent the biological diversity, nor does it provide equitable access to people. We explored options to expand the protected area system to cost-effectively improve the conservation of forest ecosystem types while simultaneously enhancing social accessibility to protected areas. Social accessibility is defined as the access of municipalities to cultural ecosystem services provided by protected areas which depends on distance to highly demanded protected areas and income of the municipalities. Using systematic conservation planning methods, we identified priority areas for extending the existing protected area system that: (a) minimise land acquisition cost, (b) maximise social accessibility and (c) optimise for both cost and accessibility. The results show that it is possible to improve social accessibility while simultaneously minimising land cost. Considering cost alone, the protected area system could be expanded to improve biodiversity conservation by 86% at the cost of $47 million USD, which would also increase the accessibility of protected areas by 12%. Accessibility can be increased by a further 18% by jointly considering cost and accessibility without compromising the cost or biodiversity performance. New private conservation policy developed in Chile could help offset the costs of conservation through novel public–private partnerships. Our results can provide specific guidance to policymakers to strategically identify new locations for protected areas which cost-effectively improve biodiversity conservation, while at the same time reducing inequality in social accessibility. The consideration of social access in reserve design could increase the success of protected areas as a conservation tool by bringing people closer to nature. A free Plain Language Summary can be found within the Supporting Information of this article.

Journal Title

People and Nature

Conference Title
Book Title
Edition
Volume

3

Issue

3

Thesis Type
Degree Program
School
Publisher link
Patent number
Funder(s)
Grant identifier(s)
Rights Statement
Rights Statement

© 2021 The Authors. People and Nature published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of British Ecological Society. 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.

Item Access Status
Note
Access the data
Related item(s)
Subject

Conservation and biodiversity

Ecology

Environmental management

Science & Technology

Life Sciences & Biomedicine

Ecology

Persistent link to this record
Citation

Jose Martinez-Harms, M; Wilson, KA; Costa, MDP; Possingham, HP; Gelcich, S; Chauvenet, A; Pliscoff, P; Marquet, PA; Bryan, BA, Conservation planning for people and nature in a Chilean biodiversity hotspot, People and Nature, 2021, 3 (3), pp. 686-699

Collections