Conservation prioritization can resolve the flagship species conundrum

Jennifer McGowan; Linda J. Beaumont; Robert J. Smith; Alienor L. M. Chauvenet; Robert Harcourt; Scott C. Atkinson; John C. Mittermeier; Manuel Esperon-Rodriguez; John B. Baumgartner; Andrew Beattie; Rachael Y. Dudaniec; Richard Grenyer; David A. Nipperess; Adam Stow; Hugh P. Possingham

doi:10.1038/s41467-020-14554-z

Conservation prioritization can resolve the flagship species conundrum

Jennifer McGowan, Linda J. Beaumont, Robert J. Smith, Alienor L. M. Chauvenet, Robert Harcourt, Scott C. Atkinson, John C. Mittermeier, Manuel Esperon-Rodriguez, John B. Baumgartner, Andrew Beattie, Rachael Y. Dudaniec, Richard Grenyer, David A. Nipperess, Adam Stow, Hugh P. Possingham

Western Sydney University

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

Conservation strategies based on charismatic flagship species, such as tigers, lions, and elephants, successfully attract funding from individuals and corporate donors. However, critics of this species-focused approach argue it wastes resources and often does not benefit broader biodiversity. If true, then the best way of raising conservation funds excludes the best way of spending it. Here we show that this conundrum can be resolved, and that the flagship species approach does not impede cost-effective conservation. Through a tailored prioritization approach, we identify places containing flagship species while also maximizing global biodiversity representation (based on 19,616 terrestrial and freshwater species). We then compare these results to scenarios that only maximized biodiversity representation, and demonstrate that our flagship-based approach achieves 79−89% of our objective. This provides strong evidence that prudently selected flagships can both raise funds for conservation and help target where these resources are best spent to conserve biodiversity.

Original language	English
Article number	994
Number of pages	7
Journal	Nature Communications
Volume	11
Issue number	1
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-14554-z
Publication status	Published - 2020

Open Access - Access Right Statement

Â© The Author(s) 2020. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/ licenses/by/4.0/.

Keywords

biodiversity conservation
fund raising
wildlife conservation

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

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10.1038/s41467-020-14554-z

Cite this

McGowan, J., Beaumont, L. J., Smith, R. J., Chauvenet, A. L. M., Harcourt, R., Atkinson, S. C., Mittermeier, J. C., Esperon-Rodriguez, M., Baumgartner, J. B., Beattie, A., Dudaniec, R. Y., Grenyer, R., Nipperess, D. A., Stow, A., & Possingham, H. P. (2020). Conservation prioritization can resolve the flagship species conundrum. Nature Communications, 11(1), Article 994. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-14554-z

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abstract = "Conservation strategies based on charismatic flagship species, such as tigers, lions, and elephants, successfully attract funding from individuals and corporate donors. However, critics of this species-focused approach argue it wastes resources and often does not benefit broader biodiversity. If true, then the best way of raising conservation funds excludes the best way of spending it. Here we show that this conundrum can be resolved, and that the flagship species approach does not impede cost-effective conservation. Through a tailored prioritization approach, we identify places containing flagship species while also maximizing global biodiversity representation (based on 19,616 terrestrial and freshwater species). We then compare these results to scenarios that only maximized biodiversity representation, and demonstrate that our flagship-based approach achieves 79−89% of our objective. This provides strong evidence that prudently selected flagships can both raise funds for conservation and help target where these resources are best spent to conserve biodiversity.",

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McGowan, J, Beaumont, LJ, Smith, RJ, Chauvenet, ALM, Harcourt, R, Atkinson, SC, Mittermeier, JC, Esperon-Rodriguez, M, Baumgartner, JB, Beattie, A, Dudaniec, RY, Grenyer, R, Nipperess, DA, Stow, A & Possingham, HP 2020, 'Conservation prioritization can resolve the flagship species conundrum', Nature Communications, vol. 11, no. 1, 994. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-14554-z

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AU - Beaumont, Linda J.

AU - Smith, Robert J.

AU - Chauvenet, Alienor L. M.

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AU - Atkinson, Scott C.

AU - Mittermeier, John C.

AU - Esperon-Rodriguez, Manuel

AU - Baumgartner, John B.

AU - Beattie, Andrew

AU - Dudaniec, Rachael Y.

AU - Grenyer, Richard

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AU - Stow, Adam

AU - Possingham, Hugh P.

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Conservation prioritization can resolve the flagship species conundrum

Abstract

Open Access - Access Right Statement

Keywords

UN SDGs

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