Prioritising Mangrove Ecosystem Services Results in Spatially Variable Management Priorities

Incorporating the values of the services that ecosystems provide into decision making is becoming increasingly common in nature conservation and resource management policies, both locally and globally. Yet with limited funds for conservation of threatened species and ecosystems there is a desire to...

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Published in:	PloS one Vol. 11; no. 3; p. e0151992
Main Authors:	Atkinson, Scott C., Jupiter, Stacy D., Adams, Vanessa M., Ingram, J. Carter, Narayan, Siddharth, Klein, Carissa J., Possingham, Hugh P.
Format:	Journal Article
Language:	English
Published:	United States Public Library of Science 23.03.2016 Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Subjects:	Analysis Biodiversity Biology and Life Sciences Carbon Carbon Sequestration Carbon storage Coastal fisheries Coastal management Coastal protection Coastal zone management Conservation Conservation of Natural Resources - economics Conservation of Natural Resources - methods Cost benefit analysis Costs Decision making Developing countries Earth Sciences Ecology and Environmental Sciences Ecosystem Ecosystem management Ecosystem services Ecosystems Engineering and Technology Environmental aspects Environmental policy Environmental protection Fiji Fisheries Funding LDCs Local communities Mangrove swamps Mangroves Natural resource conservation Nature conservation People and Places Resource management Science Strategic management Threatened species Tourism Trends Tsunamis Valuation Wetlands Wildlife conservation Fiji Santa Barbara California Australia United States > US
ISSN:	1932-6203, 1932-6203
Online Access:	Get full text
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Summary:	Incorporating the values of the services that ecosystems provide into decision making is becoming increasingly common in nature conservation and resource management policies, both locally and globally. Yet with limited funds for conservation of threatened species and ecosystems there is a desire to identify priority areas where investment efficiently conserves multiple ecosystem services. We mapped four mangrove ecosystems services (coastal protection, fisheries, biodiversity, and carbon storage) across Fiji. Using a cost-effectiveness analysis, we prioritised mangrove areas for each service, where the effectiveness was a function of the benefits provided to the local communities, and the costs were associated with restricting specific uses of mangroves. We demonstrate that, although priority mangrove areas (top 20%) for each service can be managed at relatively low opportunity costs (ranging from 4.5 to 11.3% of overall opportunity costs), prioritising for a single service yields relatively low co-benefits due to limited geographical overlap with priority areas for other services. None-the-less, prioritisation of mangrove areas provides greater overlap of benefits than if sites were selected randomly for most ecosystem services. We discuss deficiencies in the mapping of ecosystems services in data poor regions and how this may impact upon the equity of managing mangroves for particular services across the urban-rural divide in developing countries. Finally we discuss how our maps may aid decision-makers to direct funding for mangrove management from various sources to localities that best meet funding objectives, as well as how this knowledge can aid in creating a national mangrove zoning scheme.
Bibliography:	ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 14 content type line 23 Conceived and designed the experiments: SCA SDJ VMA CJK. Analyzed the data: SCA VMA. Wrote the paper: SCA SDJ VMA JCI SN HPP. Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
ISSN:	1932-6203 1932-6203
DOI:	10.1371/journal.pone.0151992