Publication Details

Category Text Publication
Reference Category Journals
DOI 10.1016/j.biocon.2008.07.028
Title (Primary) The time horizon and its role in multiple species conservation planning
Author Hartig, F.; Drechsler, M.
Source Titel Biological Conservation
Year 2008
Department OESA
Volume 141
Issue 10
Page From 2625
Page To 2631
Language englisch
Keywords Conservation planning; Discounting; Multiple species; Objective function; Time horizon; Time preferences
Abstract Survival probability within a certain time horizon T is a common measure of population viability. The choice of T implicitly involves a time preference, similar to economic discounting: conservation success is evaluated at the time horizon T, while all effects that occur later than T are not considered. Despite the obvious relevance of the time horizon, ecological studies seldom analyze its impact on the evaluation of conservation options. In this paper, we show that, while the choice of T does not change the ranking of conservation options for single species under stationary conditions, it may substantially change conservation decisions for multiple species. We conclude that it is of crucial importance to investigate the sensitivity of model results to the choice of the time horizon or other measures of time preference when prioritizing biodiversity conservation efforts.
Persistent UFZ Identifier https://www.ufz.de/index.php?en=20939&ufzPublicationIdentifier=1009
Hartig, F., Drechsler, M. (2008):
The time horizon and its role in multiple species conservation planning
Biol. Conserv. 141 (10), 2625 - 2631 10.1016/j.biocon.2008.07.028