Decision analysis for conservation and resource management

Choosing between management options and balancing multiple or competing stakeholder goals is challenging. We investigate how the decision-making process can be best informed by science. Structured Decision Making provides a framework for working through the decision-making process in a logical manner, often dealing with conflicting objectives and scientific uncertainty. Prioritisation and optimisation are quantitative techniques based on data aiming to produce the best outcome within some constraints. With scarce funding and often conflicts between conservation and economic developments, methods that support decision making are becoming more prominent and essential to achieving conservation outcomes.

Researchers:

Libby Rumpff, Terry Walsh, Jutta Beher, Jose Lahoz-Monfort, Brendan Wintle, Payal Bal, Mick McCarthy, Elliot Gould, Anca Hanea, Shih Wen Huang, Hannah Fraser

Affiliate researchers:

Pia Lentini, Heini Kujala, Cindy Hauser, Erica Marshall, Kat Selwood, Emily Nicholson

Selected publications:

Marshall, J., Valavi, R., Connor, L. O., Cadenhead, N., Southwell, D., Wintle, B. A., & Kujala, H. 2021. Quantifying the impact of vegetation-based metrics on species persistence when choosing offsets for habitat destruction. Conservation Biology, 35(2), pp.567-577.

Selwood, K., Wintle, B. A., & Kujala, H. 2019. Collaborative conservation planning: Quantifying the contribution of expert engagement to identify spatial conservation priorities. Conservation Letters, 12(6).

Wintle, B.A., Kujala, H., Whitehead, A., Cameron, A., Veloz, S., Kukkala, A., Moilanen, A., Gordon, A., Lentini, P.E., Cadenhead, N.C.R. & Bekessy, S.A. (2019). Global synthesis of conservation studies reveals the importance of small habitat patches for biodiversity. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S. A., 116

Fraser, H., Rumpff, L., Yen, J.D., Robinson, D. and Wintle, B.A., 2017. Integrated models to support multiobjective ecological restoration decisions. Conservation Biology, 31(6), pp.1418-1427.