A conservation planning study in Papua New Guinea (PNG) addresses the role of
biodiversity surrogates and biodiversity targets, in the context of the trade-offs required
for planning given real-world costs and constraints. In a trade-offs framework, surrogates
must be judged in terms of their success in predicting general biodiversity
complementarity values – the amount of additional biodiversity an area can contribute to
a protected set. Wrong predictions of low complementarity (and consequent allocation of
This report describes some of the challenges for biodiversity planning arise from a study in Papua New Guinea, but apply equally to biodiversity planning in general. These are;
* the best use of available data for providing biodiversity surrogate information
* the integration of representatives and persistence goals into the area prioritization process
* implications for the implementation of a conservation plan over time.