When should we save the most endangered species?

Ecology Letters

Volumn 14, Issue 9, 2011, Pages 886-890

  Wilson, Howard B ^a   Joseph, Liana N ^b   Moore, Alana L ^c   Possingham, Hugh P ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF QUEENSLAND   (Australia)

^b WILDLIFE CONSERVATION SOCIETY   (United States)

^c UNIVERSITY OF MELBOURNE   (Australia)

Author keywords

Anti triage; Decision theory; Endangered species; Time frames

Indexed keywords

EID: 84950170849     PISSN: 1461023X     EISSN: 14610248     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1111/j.1461-0248.2011.01652.x     Document Type: Article

References (25)

1. Balmford, A., Gaston, K.J., Blyth, S., James, A. & Kapos, V. (2003). Global variation in terrestrial conservation costs, conservation benefits, and unmet conservation needs. Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. U. S. A., 100, 1046-1050.
2. Bottrill, M.C., Joseph, L.N., Carwardine, J., Bode, M., Cook, C., Game, E.T. et al. (2008). Is conservation triage just smart decision making? Trends Ecol. Evol., 23, 649-654.
3. Christie, S. (2006). NGO investment in tiger conservation units, 1998-2003. In: Setting Priorities for the Conservation and Recovery of Wild Tigers: 2005-2015. The Technical Assessment, (ed. Sanderson, E. et al. ). WCS, WWF, Smithsonian, and NFWF-STF., New York, Washington DC USA. pp. 116-119.
4. Costello, C. & Polasky, S. (2004). Dynamic reserve site selection. Resour. Energy Econ., 26, 157-174.
5. Harrison, P., Spring, D., MacKenzie, M. & Mac Nally, R. (2008). Dynamic reserve design with the union-find algorithm. Ecol. Model., 215, 369-376.
6. Hartig, F. & Drechsler, M. (2008). The time horizon and its role in multiple species conservation planning. Cons. Biol., 141, 2625-2631.
7. Heal, G. (1998). Valuing the Future: Economic Theory and Sustainability. Columbia University Press, New York, USA.
8. Hoffmann, M., Hilton-Taylor, C., Angulo, A., Bohm, M., Brooks, T.M., Butchart, S.H.M. et al. (2010). The impact of conservation on the status of the world's vertebrates. Science, 330, 1503-1509.
9. Jachowski, D.S. & Kesler, D.C. (2009). Allowing extinction: should we let species go? Trends Ecol. Evol., 24, 180.
10. Joseph, L.N., Maloney, R.F. & Possingham, H.P. (2009). Optimal allocation of resources among threatened species: a project prioritization protocol. Cons. Biol., 23, 328-338.
11. Joseph, L.N., Maloney, R.F., Watson, J.E.M. & Possingham, H.P. (2011). Securing non-flagship species from extinction. Cons. Lett., DOI:
12. Male, T.D. & Bean, M.J. (2005). Measuring progress in US endangered species conservation. Ecol. Lett., 8, 986-992.
13. Marris, E. (2007). What to let go? Nature, 450, 152-155.
14. McCarthy, M.A., Thompson, C.J. & Garnett, S.T. (2008). Optimal investment in conservation of species. J. Appl. Ecol., 45, 1428-1435.
15. Meir, E., Andelman, S. & Possingham, H.P. (2004). Does conservation planning matter in a dynamic and uncertain world? Ecol. Lett., 7, 615-622.
16. Messonnier, M.L., Corso, P.S., Teutsch, S.M., Haddix, A.C. & Harris, J.R. (1999). An ounce of prevention. What are the returns?. Am. J. Prev. Med., 16, 248-263.
17. Mittermeier, R.A., Myers, N., Thomsen, J.B. & da Fonseca, G.A.B. (1998). Biodiversity hotspots and major tropical wilderness areas: approaches to setting conservation priorities. Cons. Biol., 12, 516-520.
18. Moore, A.L., Hauser, C.E. & McCarthy, M.A. (2008). How we value the future affects our desire to learn. Ecol. Appl., 18, 1061-1069.
19. Naidoo, R., Balmford, A., Ferraro, P.J., Polasky, S., Ricketts, T.H. & Rouget, M. (2006). Integrating economic planning into conservation planning. TREE, 21, 681-687.
20. Pimm, S.L. (2000). Against triage. Science, 289, 2289.
21. Possingham, H.P., Andelman, S.J., Burgman, M.A., Medellín, R.A., Master, L.L. & Keith, D.A. (2002). Limits to the use of threatened species lists. Trends Ecol. Evol., 11, 503-507.
22. Schneider, R.R., Hauer, G., Adamowicz, W.L. & Boutin, S. (2010). Triage for conserving populations of threatened species: The case of woodland caribou in Alberta. Biol. Consv., 143, 1603-1611.
23. Stokstad, E. (2010). Despite progress, biodiversity declines. Science, 329, 1272-1273.
24. Weitzman, M.L. (1998a). Why the far-distant future should be discounted at its lowest possible rate. J. Environ. Econ. Manag., 36, 201-208.
25. Weitzman, M.L. (1998b). The Noah's ark problem. Econometrica, 66, 1279-1298.