title: Costs of integrating economics and conservation planning.
abstract: Recent literature on systematic conservation planning has focused strongly on economics. It is a necessary component of efficient conservation planning because the question is about effective resource allocation. Nevertheless, there is an increasing tendency toward economic factors overriding biological considerations. Focusing too narrowly on economic cost may lead us back toward solutions resembling those obtained by opportunistic choice of areas, the avoidance of which was the motivation for development of systematic approaches. Moreover, there are many overlooked difficulties in incorporating economic considerations reliably into conservation planning because available economic data and the free market are complex. For instance, economies based on free markets tend to be shortsighted, whereas biodiversity conservation aims far into the future. Although economic data are necessary, they should not be relied on too heavily or considered separately from other sociopolitical factors. We suggest focusing on development of more-comprehensive ecological-economic modeling, while not forgetting the importance of purely biological analyses that are needed as a point of reference for evaluating conservation outcomes.
authors.affiliation: Metapopulation Research Group, Department of Biosciences, P.O. Box 65 (Viikinkaari 1), FI-00014 University of Helsinki, Finland. anni.arponen@helsinki.fi
authors.forename: Anni
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Arponen
authors.forename: Mar
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Cabeza
authors.forename: Johanna
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Eklund
authors.forename: Heini
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Kujala
authors.forename: Joona
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Lehtomäki
mesh_terms: D003247:Conservation of Natural Resources / Q000191:economics* / Q000379:methods*; D017753:Ecosystem; D018803:Models, Economic; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors