Some future prospects for systematic biodiversity planning in PNG

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Some future prospects for systematic biodiversity planning in PNG

We describe three challenges for biodiversity planning, which arise from a study in Papua New Guinea, but apply equally to biodiversity planning in general. These are 1. the best use of available data for providing biodiversity surrogate information, 2. the integration of representativeness and persistence goals into the area prioritisation process, and 3. implications for the implementation of a conservation plan over time.
Each of these problems is linked to the effective use of complementarity. Further, we find that a probabilistic framework for calculating persistence-based complementarity values over time can contribute to resolving each challenge. Probabilities allow for the exploration of a range of possible complementarity values over different planning scenarios, and provide a way to evaluate biodiversity surrogates.