Impediments to the success of management actions for species recovery.

Finding cost-effective management strategies to recover species declining due to multiple threats is challenging, especially when there are limited resources. Recent studies offer insights into how costs and threats can influence the best choice of management actions. However, when implementing mana...

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Main Authors: Chooi Fei Ng, Hugh P Possingham, Clive A McAlpine, Deidré L de Villiers, Harriet J Preece, Jonathan R Rhodes
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2014-01-01
Series:PLoS ONE
Online Access:https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0092430&type=printable
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author Chooi Fei Ng
Hugh P Possingham
Clive A McAlpine
Deidré L de Villiers
Harriet J Preece
Jonathan R Rhodes
author_facet Chooi Fei Ng
Hugh P Possingham
Clive A McAlpine
Deidré L de Villiers
Harriet J Preece
Jonathan R Rhodes
author_sort Chooi Fei Ng
collection DOAJ
description Finding cost-effective management strategies to recover species declining due to multiple threats is challenging, especially when there are limited resources. Recent studies offer insights into how costs and threats can influence the best choice of management actions. However, when implementing management actions in the real-world, a range of impediments to management success often exist that can be driven by social, technological and land-use factors. These impediments may limit the extent to which we can achieve recovery objectives and influence the optimal choice of management actions. Nonetheless, the implications of these impediments are not well understood, especially for recovery planning involving multiple actions. We used decision theory to assess the impact of these types of impediments for allocating resources among recovery actions to mitigate multiple threats. We applied this to a declining koala (Phascolarctos cinereus) population threatened by habitat loss, vehicle collisions, dog attacks and disease. We found that the unwillingness of dog owners to restrain their dogs at night (a social impediment), the effectiveness of wildlife crossings to reduce vehicle collisions (a technological impediment) and the unavailability of areas for restoration (a land-use impediment) significantly reduced the effectiveness of our actions. In the presence of these impediments, achieving successful recovery may be unlikely. Further, these impediments influenced the optimal choice of recovery actions, but the extent to which this was true depended on the target koala population growth rate. Given that species recovery is an important strategy for preserving biodiversity, it is critical that we consider how impediments to the success of recovery actions modify our choice of actions. In some cases, it may also be worth considering whether investing in reducing or removing impediments may be a cost-effective course of action.
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spelling doaj-art-05debb6be0644e07ab3a67f85aaf52462025-08-20T03:00:31ZengPublic Library of Science (PLoS)PLoS ONE1932-62032014-01-0194e9243010.1371/journal.pone.0092430Impediments to the success of management actions for species recovery.Chooi Fei NgHugh P PossinghamClive A McAlpineDeidré L de VilliersHarriet J PreeceJonathan R RhodesFinding cost-effective management strategies to recover species declining due to multiple threats is challenging, especially when there are limited resources. Recent studies offer insights into how costs and threats can influence the best choice of management actions. However, when implementing management actions in the real-world, a range of impediments to management success often exist that can be driven by social, technological and land-use factors. These impediments may limit the extent to which we can achieve recovery objectives and influence the optimal choice of management actions. Nonetheless, the implications of these impediments are not well understood, especially for recovery planning involving multiple actions. We used decision theory to assess the impact of these types of impediments for allocating resources among recovery actions to mitigate multiple threats. We applied this to a declining koala (Phascolarctos cinereus) population threatened by habitat loss, vehicle collisions, dog attacks and disease. We found that the unwillingness of dog owners to restrain their dogs at night (a social impediment), the effectiveness of wildlife crossings to reduce vehicle collisions (a technological impediment) and the unavailability of areas for restoration (a land-use impediment) significantly reduced the effectiveness of our actions. In the presence of these impediments, achieving successful recovery may be unlikely. Further, these impediments influenced the optimal choice of recovery actions, but the extent to which this was true depended on the target koala population growth rate. Given that species recovery is an important strategy for preserving biodiversity, it is critical that we consider how impediments to the success of recovery actions modify our choice of actions. In some cases, it may also be worth considering whether investing in reducing or removing impediments may be a cost-effective course of action.https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0092430&type=printable
spellingShingle Chooi Fei Ng
Hugh P Possingham
Clive A McAlpine
Deidré L de Villiers
Harriet J Preece
Jonathan R Rhodes
Impediments to the success of management actions for species recovery.
PLoS ONE
title Impediments to the success of management actions for species recovery.
title_full Impediments to the success of management actions for species recovery.
title_fullStr Impediments to the success of management actions for species recovery.
title_full_unstemmed Impediments to the success of management actions for species recovery.
title_short Impediments to the success of management actions for species recovery.
title_sort impediments to the success of management actions for species recovery
url https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0092430&type=printable
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