The cost of postponing biodiversity conservation in Mexico

Though Neotropical countries are the most species rich in the world, their biodiversity is threatened by the loss of native vegetation. Land conversion in Mexico during the last 30 years has been extensive and is representative of that of other developing countries. However, the effects of land use change on the required size and configuration of an adequate biological conservation area network are largely unknown. It is shown here that endemic mammals in Mexico could have been protected considerably more economically if a conservation plan had been implemented in 1970 than is possible today due to extensive conversion of primary habitats. Analysis of the distributions of 86 endemic mammal species in 1970, 1976, 1993, and 2000 indicates that the distributions of 90% of the species shrank during this 30-year period. At each time step, optimal conservation area networks were selected to represent all species. 90% more land must be protected after 2000 to protect adequate mammal habitat than would have been required in 1970. In addition, under a realistic conservation budget, 79% fewer species can be represented adequately in a conservation area network after 2000 compared to 1970. This provides an incentive for rapid conservation action in Mexico and other biodiversity hotspots with comparable deforestation rates, including Burma, Ecuador, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Sri Lanka. Due to ongoing habitat degradation, the efficiency of a conservation plan decreases with delays in its implementation.     

Heuristic algorithms vs. linear programs for designing efficient conservation reserve networks: Evaluation of solution optimality and processing time

Systematic approaches to efficient reserve network design often make use of one of two types of site selection algorithm; linear programs or heuristic algorithms. Unlike with linear programs, heuristic algorithms have been demonstrated to yield suboptimal networks in that more sites are selected in order to meet conservation goals than may be necessary or fewer features are captured than is possible. Although the degree of suboptimality is not known when using heuristics, some researchers have suggested that it is not significant in most cases and that heuristics are preferred since they are more flexible and can yield a solution more quickly. Using eight binary datasets, we demonstrate that suboptimality of numbers of sites selected and biodiversity features protected can occur to various degrees depending on the dataset, the model design, and the type of heuristic applied, and that processing time is not dramatically different between optimal and heuristic algorithms. In choosing an algorithm, the degree of suboptimality may not always be as important to planners as the perception that optimal solvers have feasibility issues, and therefore heuristic algorithms might continue to be a popular tool for conservation planning. We conclude that for many datasets, feasibility of optimal algorithms should not be a concern and that the value of heuristic results can be greatly improved by using optimal algorithms to determine the degree of suboptimality of the results.     

Sensitivity of conservation planning to different approaches to using predicted species distribution data

The main role of conservation planning is to design reserve networks to protect biodiversity in situ. Research within the field of conservation planning has focused on the development of theories and tools to design reserve networks that protect biodiversity in an efficient and representative manner. Whilst much progress has been made in this regard, there has been limited assessment of the sensitivity of conservation planning outcomes to uncertainty associated with the datasets used for conservation planning. Predicted species distribution data are commonly used for conservation planning because the alternatives (e.g. survey data) are incomplete or biased spatially. However, there may be considerable uncertainty associated with the use of predicted species distribution data, particularly given the variety of approaches available to generate a dataset from such predictions for use in conservation planning. These approaches range from using the probabilistic data directly to using a threshold identified a priori or a posteriori to convert the probabilistic data to presence/absence data. We assess the sensitivity of conservation planning outcomes to different uses of predicted species distribution data. The resulting reserve networks differed, and had different expected species representation. The choice of approach will depend on how much risk a conservation planner is willing to tolerate and how much efficiency can be sacrificed.     

Hierarchical systematic conservation planning at the national level: Identifying national biodiversity hotspots using abiotic factors in Russia

National conservation planning should operate with measures of biodiversity similar to those applied globally in order to harmonize national and international conservation strategies. Here we suggest quantitative measures which enable two criteria of the global biodiversity hotspots to be applied on a national level for 74 large countries, and show how these measures can be applied to map national biodiversity hotspots. The plant endemism criteria of global hotspots are captured by quantitative measures of endemism, which are approximately scale-independent and can be corrected to account for a country’s environmental conditions and conservation priorities. The flexible land use criteria for national biodiversity hotspots are defined from percentage of natural vegetation remaining in the global hotspots. The minimum-area-required approach is applied to define the borders of national biodiversity hotspots using data on vascular plants species richness. We show how national biodiversity hotspots can be mapped from the species-energy relationship for vascular plants using climate, topographical and land use data when spatial pattern of species richness is not known. This methodology to map national biodiversity hotspots from abiotic factors is applied to Russia as a case study. Three Russian biodiversity hotspots, North Caucasus, South Siberia and Far East were identified. The resulting hotspot maps cover national-scale environmental gradients across Russia and although they are also identified by Russian experts their actual geographical locations were hitherto unspecified. The large-scale national hotspots, identified for Russia, can be used for further fine scale and more detailed conservation planning.     

Efficiency and effectiveness in representative reserve design in Canada: The contribution of existing protected areas

To be effective, reserve networks should represent all target species in protected areas that are large enough to ensure species persistence. Given limited resources to set aside protected areas for biodiversity conservation, and competing land uses, a prime consideration for the design of reserve networks is efficiency (the maximum biodiversity represented in a minimum number of sites). However, to be effective, networks may sacrifice efficiency. We used reserve selection algorithms to determine whether collections of existing individual protected areas in Canada were efficient and/or effective in terms of representing the diversity of disturbance-sensitive mammals in Canada in comparison to (1) an optimal network of reserves, and (2) sites selected at random. Unlike previous studies, we restricted our analysis to individual protected areas that met a criterion for minimum reserve size, to address issues of representation and persistence simultaneously. We also tested for effectiveness and efficiency using historical and present-day data to see whether protected area efficiency and/or effectiveness varied over time. In general, existing protected areas did not effectively capture the full suite of mammalian species diversity, nor are most existing protected areas part of a near-optimal solution set. To be effective, Canada’s network of reserves will require at minimum 22 additional areas of >2700 km². This study shows that even when only those reserves large enough to be effective are considered, protected areas systems may not be representative, nor were they representative at the time of establishment.     

Prioritizing avian conservation areas for the Yellowstone to Yukon Region of North America

Prioritizing new areas for conservation in the Rocky Mountains of North America is important because the current intensity and scale of human development poses an immediate threat to biodiversity. We identified priority areas for avian biodiversity within a 3200-km corridor from Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming, US to the Yukon in Canada (the Y2Y region). We applied the conservation planning tool, MARXAN, to summarize 21 avian values. MARXAN minimizes the area delineated, while simultaneously incorporating multiple criteria (species richness representation, spatial clustering) and biodiversity targets into a single mappable solution. We prioritized avian biodiversity ‘hotspots’ at continental and ecoprovincial scales based on: (1) avian species richness; and (2) habitat associations of 20 focal species. At the continental scale, the single best solution represented 19% of the Y2Y region; 29% of this solution overlapped with existing protected areas. In northern Y2Y, large contiguous areas with high avian value were concentrated on the western edge of the continental divide. In southern Y2Y, contiguous areas were smaller and more numerous than in the north. In contrast to the majority of studies prioritizing conservation areas, we explored the effect of varying the extent of the target region by analyzing data at the scale of the entire Y2Y region and for eight ecoprovinces separately. We found that (1) large contiguous patches characterized only three ecoprovinces, while for the remaining ecoprovinces, numerous single scattered habitat patches of varying sizes were required to meet conservation goals; and (2) generally, only a small percentage of sites was already protected within the existing protected areas network. Our results are important for conservation planners and resource managers in the Y2Y region for incorporating areas of high conservation value for birds at regional and ecoprovincial scales during conservation project design and adaptive planning.     

Land managers’ willingness-to-sell defines conservation opportunity for protected area expansion

Spatial prioritization techniques are increasingly applied in the design of protected area networks, which are regarded as the cornerstone of nature conservation efforts. These techniques are becoming ever more sophisticated, but are still founded primarily upon biological data. A common assumption made in most spatial prioritizations is that land throughout a planning region is available for acquisition. We interviewed land managers in the Eastern Cape province, South Africa, and mapped their willingness-to-sell their land using a psychometric analytical technique. We examined the, (i) degree to which vegetation type targets are achieved across a planning region, (ii) areal and cost efficiency, and (iii) spatial configuration, of candidate protected areas identified as important for achieving conservation targets. We found that only 10 out of 48 land managers were willing-to-sell their land. Only seven, five and one of the 19 vegetation types, respectively, could achieve their conservation targets of 10%, 30% and 50% when unwilling land managers were removed from the analysis. Assuming unwilling land managers could be convinced to sell if offered a premium price, the cost of acquiring all lands was between 6.20% and 30.67% more expensive than 2006 land prices. Accounting for implementation opportunities and constraints, such as land manager willingness-to-sell, not simply identifying biological priorities, is of fundamental importance for ensuring spatial prioritizations deliver maps with the potential to usefully guide expansion of protected area networks which can be feasibly implemented.     

Conservation planning with dynamic threats: The role of spatial design and priority setting for species’ persistence

Conservation actions frequently need to be scheduled because both funding and implementation capacity are limited. Two approaches to scheduling are possible. Maximizing gain (MaxGain) which attempts to maximize representation with protected areas, or minimizing loss (MinLoss) which attempts to minimize total loss both inside and outside protected areas. Conservation planners also choose between setting priorities based solely on biodiversity pattern and considering surrogates for biodiversity processes such as connectivity. We address both biodiversity processes and habitat loss in a scheduling framework by comparing four different prioritization strategies defined by MaxGain and MinLoss applied to biodiversity patterns and processes to solve the dynamic area selection problem with variable area cost. We compared each strategy by estimating predicted species’ occurrences within a landscape after 20 years of incremental reservation and loss of habitat. By incorporating species-specific responses to fragmentation, we found that you could improve the performance of conservation strategies. MinLoss was the best approach for conserving both biodiversity pattern and process. However, due to the spatial autocorrelation of habitat loss, reserves selected with this approach tended to become more isolated through time; losing up to 40% of occurrences of edge-sensitive species. Additionally, because of the positive correlation between threats and land cost, reserve networks designed with this approach contained smaller and fewer reserves compared with networks designed with a MaxGain approach. We suggest a possible way to account for the negative effect of fragmentation by considering both local and neighbourhood vulnerability to habitat loss.     

Expanding protected areas beyond their terrestrial comfort zone: Identifying spatial options for river conservation

There has been very little consideration of freshwater ecosystems in identifying and designing protected areas. Recent studies suggest that protected areas hold enormous potential to conserve freshwater biodiversity if augmented with appropriate planning and management strategies. Recognizing this need, South Africa’s relevant government authority commissioned a spatial assessment to inform their national protected area expansion strategy. This study presents the freshwater component of the spatial assessment, aimed at identifying focus areas for expanding the national protected area system for the benefit of river biodiversity. Conservation objectives to guide the assessment aimed to improve representation of river biodiversity pattern and processes in both new and existing protected areas. Data to address these objectives were collated in a Geographic Information System (GIS) and a conservation planning algorithm was used as a means of integrating the multiple objectives in a spatially efficient manner. Representation of biodiversity pattern was based on achieving conservation targets for 222 river types and 47 freshwater fish endemic to South Africa. Options were also identified for representing coarse-scale biodiversity processes associated with free-flowing rivers and catchment-estuarine linkages. River reaches that, with only minor expansion of existing protected area boundaries, could be fully incorporated into the national protected area system were also identified. Based on this study, generic recommendations are made on how to locate, design and manage protected areas for river biodiversity: use appropriate planning units, incorporate both biodiversity pattern and process, improve planning and management of individual protected areas, incorporate a mixture of protection strategies, and embed planning into an ongoing research and implementation process.     

Conservation policies and planning under climate change

Biodiversity conservation policies focus on securing the survival of species and habitats according to their current distribution. This basic premise may be inappropriate for halting biodiversity decline under the dynamic changes caused by climate change. This study explores a dynamic spatial conservation prioritization problem where climate change gradually changes the future habitat suitability of a site’ current species. This has implications for survival probability, as well as for species that potentially immigrate to the site. The problem is explored using a set of heuristics for both of two policy objectives focusing on (1) the protection on current (native) species, and (2) all species, including immigrating species. The trade-offs between the protection of native species versus all species is illustrated. The study shows that the development of prediction models of future species distributions as the basis of decision rules can be crucial for ensuring the effectiveness of conservation plans. Finally, it is discussed how more adaptive strategies, that allow for the redirection of resources from protected sites to privately-owned sites, may increase the effectiveness of the conservation networks. Climate change induced shifts in the suitability of habitats for species may increase the value of such adaptive strategies, the benefit decreasing with increasing migration probabilities and species distribution dynamics.     

Integration of species persistence, costs and conflicts: An evaluation of tree conservation strategies in Cambodia

Cambodia forms part of the Indo-Burma hotspot. Its extent of biodiversity, however, is subject to considerable uncertainty, as there has been little systematic collection of flora and fauna. During the Khmer Rouge regime institutions were banned, academics were prosecuted and written documentation systematically destroyed. Compared with neighbouring countries Cambodia has a low population density and relatively large natural areas that are still intact. However, deforestation is expanding rapidly and a significant but un-estimated area of forest has been degraded by development of agro-industries, encroachment, illegal logging, over-harvesting and forest fire as well as the use of chemicals during war. The purpose of the paper is to: (i) apply reserve selection methods to design more robust conservation networks when knowledge of species occurrence is incomplete and habitat is threatened, and (ii) evaluate the usefulness of systematic conservation planning in a developing country where data are limited and institutions for implementation are weak. This study investigates the performance of four non-probabilistic strategies: (i) a so-called ‘rule of thumb’, (ii) hotspot, (iii) minimum cost representation, and (iv) maximum coverage; and one probabilistic design strategy, i.e. maximum expected coverage. The maximum expected coverage approach is between 15% and 24% more efficient than the non-probabilistic strategies. Finally, the relevance of such tools to real-world conservation planning in Cambodia is investigated. By incorporating experts in the generation of data, running the models and setting up premises, they acknowledge that it is possible to contribute to more systematic conservation planning in developing countries.     

Biodiversity management in the face of climate change: A review of 22 years of recommendations

Climate change creates new challenges for biodiversity conservation. Species ranges and ecological dynamics are already responding to recent climate shifts, and current reserves will not continue to support all species they were designed to protect. These problems are exacerbated by other global changes. Scholarly articles recommending measures to adapt conservation to climate change have proliferated over the last 22 years. We systematically reviewed this literature to explore what potential solutions it has identified and what consensus and direction it provides to cope with climate change. Several consistent recommendations emerge for action at diverse spatial scales, requiring leadership by diverse actors. Broadly, adaptation requires improved regional institutional coordination, expanded spatial and temporal perspective, incorporation of climate change scenarios into all planning and action, and greater effort to address multiple threats and global change drivers simultaneously in ways that are responsive to and inclusive of human communities. However, in the case of many recommendations the how, by whom, and under what conditions they can be implemented is not specified. We synthesize recommendations with respect to three likely conservation pathways: regional planning; site-scale management; and modification of existing conservation plans. We identify major gaps, including the need for (1) more specific, operational examples of adaptation principles that are consistent with unavoidable uncertainty about the future; (2) a practical adaptation planning process to guide selection and integration of recommendations into existing policies and programs; and (3) greater integration of social science into an endeavor that, although dominated by ecology, increasingly recommends extension beyond reserves and into human-occupied landscapes.     

General management principles and a checklist of strategies to guide forest biodiversity conservation

Many indicators and criteria have been proposed to assess the sustainable management of forests but their scientific validity remains uncertain. Because the effects of forest disturbances (such as logging) are often specific to particular species, sites, landscapes, regions and forest types, management “shortcuts” such as indicator species, focal species and threshold levels of vegetation cover may be of limited generic value. We propose an alternative approach based on a set of five guiding principles for biodiversity conservation that are broadly applicable to any forested area: (1) the maintenance of connectivity; (2) the maintenance of landscape heterogeneity; (3) the maintenance of stand structural complexity; and (4) the maintenance of aquatic ecosystem integrity; (5) the use of natural disturbance regimes to guide human disturbance regimes.We present a checklist of measures for forest biodiversity conservation that reflects the multi-scaled nature of conservation approaches on forested land. At the regional scale, management should ensure the establishment of large ecological reserves. At the landscape scale, off-reserve conservation measures should include: (1) protected areas within production forests; (2) buffers for aquatic ecosystems; (3) appropriately designed and located road networks; (4) the careful spatial and temporal arrangement of harvest units; and (5) appropriate fire management practices. At the stand level, off-reserve conservation measures should include: (1) the retention of key elements of stand structural complexity (e.g., large living and dead trees with hollows, understorey thickets, and large fallen logs); (2) long rotation times (coupled with structural retention at harvest); (3) silvicultural systems alternative to traditional high impact ones (e.g., clearcutting in some forest types); and (4) appropriate fire management practices and practices for the management of other kinds of disturbances.Although the general ecological principles and associated checklist are intuitive, data to evaluate the effectiveness of many specific on-the-ground management actions are limited. Considerable effort is needed to adopt adaptive management “natural experiments” and monitoring to: (1) better identify the impacts of logging operations and other kinds of management activities on biodiversity, and; (2) quantify the effectiveness of impact mitigation strategies; and (3) identify ways to improve management practices.     

The effects of including marine ecological values in terrestrial reserve planning for a forest-nesting seabird

Theoretical advances in systematic reserve design aim to promote the efficient use of limited conservation resources and to increase the likelihood that reserve networks enhance the persistence of valued species and ecosystems. However, these methods have rarely been applied to species that rely on spatially disjunct habitats. We used the marbled murrelet, a seabird that requires old-growth forest in which to nest and high quality marine habitats in which to forage, as a case study to explore methods of incorporating multiple ecological values into single species spatial reserve design. Specifically, we used the cost function in MARXAN to include the ecological value of marine habitats while identifying spatial solutions for terrestrial nesting habitat reserves. Including marine values influenced terrestrial reserve designs most when terrestrial habitat targets were low and little or none of the target was represented in pre-existing protected areas. Our results suggest that including marine values in the planning process will influence marbled murrelet terrestrial reserve designs most where substantial terrestrial nesting habitat still exists, where new reserves are relatively unconstrained by pre-existing reserves, or when conservation resources only allow the protection of a small fraction of available habitat. This paper presents a novel framework for incorporating multiple measures of ecological value in the spatial reserve design process and should be particularly useful for species that rely on multiple habitats during their life cycle.     

Using occupancy models of forest breeding birds to prioritize conservation planning

As urban development continues to encroach on the natural and rural landscape, land-use planners struggle to identify high priority conservation areas for protection. Although knowing where urban-sensitive species may be occurring on the landscape would facilitate conservation planning, research efforts are often not sufficiently designed to make quality predictions at unknown locations. Recent advances in occupancy modeling allow for more precise estimates of occupancy by accounting for differences in detectability. We applied these techniques to produce robust estimates of habitat occupancy for a subset of forest breeding birds, a group that has been shown to be sensitive to urbanization, in a rapidly urbanizing yet biological diverse region of New York State. We found that detection probability ranged widely across species, from 0.05 to 0.8. Our models suggest that detection probability declined with increasing forest fragmentation. We also found that the probability of occupancy of forest breeding birds is negatively influenced by increasing perimeter-area ratio of forest fragments and urbanization in the surrounding habitat matrix. We capitalized on our random sampling design to produce spatially explicit models that predict high priority conservation areas across the entire region, where interior-species were most likely to occur. Finally, we use our predictive maps to demonstrate how a strict sampling design coupled with occupancy modeling can be a valuable tool for prioritizing biodiversity conservation in land-use planning.     

基于生物多样性保护的曹妃甸新区城镇用地规划研究

随着我国经济的高速发展,用地矛盾越来越突出,土地生态安全面临着严峻挑战。如何在土地生态安全的状态下实现城镇用地的有序扩展是解决这一挑战的重要途径。以曹妃甸新区为例,以生物多样性保护为目标,运用GIS空间分析技术,建立地表景观类型最小阻力面和“源”间生态廊道,确定了关键战略点,最终构建生物多样性保护安全格局。在此基础上,结合基本农田保护规划,提出城镇空间扩展的优化战略。研究结果显示,运用景观安全格局理论能更好地完善原有规划的不足,在保障城镇发展水平的同时协调各类用地之间的冲突,为曹妃甸新区城镇用地可持续扩展提供理论支撑和技术支持。     

Incorporating ontogenetic dispersal, ecological processes and conservation zoning into reserve design

Computational methods for marine reserve design are frequently used as decision-support tools for the identification of conservation areas. Most reserve-selection algorithms minimise the cost of the reserve system whilst aiming to meet specified biodiversity objectives. Here, we extend a widely-used selection algorithm, Marxan, to incorporate several important considerations related to biodiversity processes and management. First we relax the scorched earth assumption to allow conservation features in non-reserve zones to contribute explicitly to conservation objectives. To achieve this, we generate conservation targets at landscape scales rather than focusing purely on the representation of features within reserves. Second, we develop the notion of spatial dependencies further to incorporate spatial heterogeneity in the value of individual conservation features such as habitat types. We use the example of ontogenetic migrations of fish from mangroves to coral reefs because it nicely demonstrates how spatial ecological processes generate predictable heterogeneity in habitat value that should be considered in the reserve design process. Lastly, we show how habitat value can be disaggregated into ecosystem processes and services. Using a case study for the Belize Barrier Reef we compare reserve networks generated using our new approach with the results of traditional analyses. Consideration of the contribution of different protection zones, connectivity among habitats and more complex management goals resulted in up to a 52% increase in the mean biomass of commercially and ecologically-important fish species represented in the landscape. Our approach strengthens the ecological basis of reserve-design algorithms and might facilitate the uptake of ecosystem-based management into reserve design.     

Optimal reserve selection in a dynamic world

In this paper we present a novel expansion of the problem of optimal reserve site selection over time. We explore a case where areas with valuable biodiversity cannot all be protected immediately due to budget restrictions and there is a probability of species extinction on reserved as well as non-reserved sites. Add to this the risk of land-use conversion facing all non-reserved areas. We furthermore introduce a new type of control by making the planning authorities have the option to sell reserved land on which biodiversity value has decreased. We formulate and solve this problem through stochastic dynamic integer-programming. The current study shows that, due to the dynamic and stochastic nature of biodiversity evolution, the inclusion of a swapping option may increase overall efficiency. Finally, we test a number of decision criteria (heuristics) to investigate alternatives to the cumbersome task of determining the true optimum.     

The efficacy of Romania’s protected areas network in conserving biodiversity

Romania’s protected areas network currently covers 19.29% of the national territory, a significant increase from the 4.1% protected prior to 1989. The increase occurred over the past 20 years with the creation of 27 National and Natural Parks, and recently of 382 protected areas as part of the pan-European Natura 2000 network. Considering the recent increase in number and area of protected lands, we investigated two core topics critical to achieving conservation goals: (1) conservation value and (2) resources for conservation. The newly created Natura 2000 sites overlapped 96.19% of the existing protected areas network, generating up to three different protection statuses for some sites. Conservation goals were often unclear, as the focus switched to protecting species and habitats of European-level concern. Despite the fivefold increase in protected area, many ecoregions were poorly represented in the new system. Planning for conservation neither involved the local communities nor utilized principles for spatial prioritization. Over 80% of the species of European conservation concern were included in at least one protected area, but plants and invertebrates were underrepresented. Administrative bodies were generally under-staffed and poorly financed, conditions that were reflected in a poor enforcement and implementation of conservation goals. Overall, Romania shares many conservation concerns with other Eastern and Central European countries. A regional approach to conserving biodiversity based on spatial prioritization, rigorous scientific documentation, and social acceptance is needed for the Natura 2000 network to achieve its goals.     

Identifying and mapping biodiversity processes for conservation planning in islands: A case study in Réunion Island (Western Indian Ocean)

Over the last century, island biodiversity has become one of the most threatened in the world. Although many island conservation plans address biodiversity requirements at the species level, few plans address the spatial requirements of the biodiversity processes that underpin the persistence of these species. Using systematic conservation planning principles, we map the spatial components of biodiversity processes (SCBPs) and use these to design broad-scale conservation corridors for Réunion Island. Our method is based upon a literature review, expert knowledge, spatially explicit base data, conservation planning software, and spatial modelling. We combine a target-driven algorithm with least-cost path analyses to delineate optimal corridors for capturing key biodiversity processes while simultaneously considering biodiversity pattern targets, conservation opportunities, and future threats. We identify five SCBPs: the oceanic-terrestrial interface; riverine corridors; macrohabitat interfaces; the boundaries of isolated topographic units; and lowland-upland gradients. A large proportion of the SCBPs (81.3%) is currently untransformed, whereas 3% is irreversibly transformed by urbanisation and 15.7% is transformed but restorable. However, SCBPs are almost fully disrupted by urbanisation in the lowlands, thereby compromising functional corridors along full altitudinal gradients. This study is a contribution toward the reconciliation of conservation versus development objectives on Réunion Island but we believe that the delineation method is sufficiently general to be applied to other islands. Our results highlight the need for integrating marine, coastal and terrestrial conservation planning as a matter of urgency, given the rapid transformation of coastal areas on islands.