Conservation costs

The costs of conservation are an important consideration in evaluating ecosystem services. If the costs are unknown, then it is impossible to calculate the net value of ecosystem services and impossible to plan for efficient biodiversity conservation. Researchers at the University of Cambridge, University of East Anglia and University of Princeton are developing methods to derive spatially explicit maps of protected area management costs, wildlife damage costs and opportunity costs. The costs of conservation are expected to vary more widely than the biodiversity benefits, which has important implications for conservation planning in the region.