Conservation Decision Making in a Data-Limited World
9:00 - 11:00 a.m. - Prince Georges Room, Stamp Student Union
Speakers:
J. Michael Scott, Ph.D.
Professor, Dept. of Fish and Wildlife Resources
University of Idaho
“Conservation Resilient Species: How Much Information is Necessary to Make Informed Conservation Decisions?”Sandy Andelman, Ph.D.
Vice President
Tropical Ecology Assessment and Monitoring Network
Conservation International
"Systematic Conservation Planning in Dynamic Landscapes."
Speaker and Organizer:
Maile Neel, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Department of Plant Science and Landscape Architecture & Department of Entomology, University of Maryland
"Can We Conserve Diversity Without Really Trying?"
Abstract: Conservation goals typically include maintaining the elements of biological diversity as well as the evolutionary and ecological processes that have yielded and maintain that diversity. One of the most difficult and persistent questions is, what proportion of individuals, populations or land area is required to achieve these goals? Models and analytical techniques designed to quantify biodiversity distribution and viability and to prioritize sites for conservation purposes are increasing in sophistication at an alarming rate. This sophistication comes with extreme costs in terms of the amount and quality of data necessary to parameterize the models. In most cases the required data will not be available, especially in the time frames necessary for making decisions, especially when decisions include more than a few easily studied species. More importantly it is not clear that the increased model sophistication leads to better conservation decisions. Because of the competing risks of making decisions with incomplete information versus postponing decisions while data are being collected while populations continue to decline, it is critical to understand how the complexity and sophistication of models and amount of data affect the quality of conservation decisions. The purpose of this symposium is to discuss the state of the art approaches to conservation decision-making, the consequences of making decisions with incomplete data, and approaches to reduce the associated risks.
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College of Chemical & Life Sciences * University of Maryland * College Park, MD 20742