Conservation Prioritization and Uncertainty in Planning Inputs

Abstract

Abstract Uncertainty is pervasive in conservation decisions (Regan et al. 2002a; Harwood and Stokes 2003) and failing to account for it can lead to suboptimal decisions or actions that damage biodiversity (Rabinowitz 1995; Grand et al. 2007). Nevertheless, there is an imperative to make decisions for conservation planning and postponing decisions to wait for more data (hence greater certainty) can lead to unnecessary and avoidable biodiversity losses (Slooten et al. 2000). Decisions in the face of uncertainty should allow for opportunities to learn from mistakes and to update existing knowledge as new information becomes available. In this review, we outline the sources of unc..