Global mapping of ecosystem services and conservation priorities
Open accessAbstract
Global efforts to conserve biodiversity have the potential to deliver economic benefits to people (i.e., “ecosystem services”). However, regions for which conservation benefits both biodiversity and ecosystem services cannot be identified unless ecosystem services can be quantified and valued and their areas of production mapped. Here we review the theory, data, and analyses needed to produce such maps and find that data availability allows us to quantify imperfect global proxies for only four ecosystem services. Using this incomplete set as an illustration, we compare ecosystem service maps with the global distributions of conventional targets for biodiversity conservation. Our preliminary results show that regions selected to maximize biodiversity provide no more ecosystem services than regions chosen randomly. Furthermore, spatial concordance among different services, and between ecosystem services and established conservation priorities, varies widely. Despite this lack of general concordance, “win–win” areas—regions important for both ecosystem services and biodiversity—can be usefully identified, both among ecoregions and at finer scales within them. An ambitious interdisciplinary research effort is needed to move beyond these preliminary and illustrative analyses to fully assess synergies and trade-offs in conserving biodiversity and ecosystem services.
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Linear programming yields exact solutions to linear optimization problems, whereas heuristic algorithms often used in conservation yield feasible solutions whose optimality is unknown.
“Linear programming identifies exact solutions to linear optimization problems 15,16 -unlike the heuristic algorithms that are more commonly used in conservation [12][13][14] , which identify feasible solutions of unknown optimality 17,18 .”
From Global priority areas for ecosystem restoration (2020) · cites this paper as [16]
The citation is attached to the claim that heuristic algorithms are more commonly used in conservation. The Comparisons Between Ecosystem Services and Biodiversity section instead says this paper used integer programming; the Discussion calls its analyses heuristic in purpose, not its algorithms heuristic. Our copy does not establish how commonly conservation uses heuristic algorithms or whether their solutions have unknown optimality. (LLM, conf=0.76)
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Self-citation
- Authors
- Naidoo, R., Balmford, A., Costanza, R., Fisher, B., Green, R. E., Lehner, B., Malcolm, T. R., & Ricketts, T. H.
- Affiliations
- World Wildlife Fund (US)
- University of Cambridge (GB)
- University of Vermont (US)
- University of East Anglia (GB)
- Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (GB)
- McGill University (CA)
- Venue
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
- Publisher
- National Academy of Sciences
- Published
- 2008-07-15
- Volume
- 105
- Issue
- 28
- Pages
- 9495-9500
- ISSN
- 0027-8424 (ISSN-L)
- 1091-6490
- PMC
- PMC2474481
- OpenAlex
- W2027370059
- Cited by
- 1,048
- References
- 48
- Citations by year
- 2026: 28 · 2025: 35 · 2024: 36 · 2023: 59 · 2022: 37 · 2021: 49 · 2020: 66 · 2019: 55 · 2018: 71 · 2017: 63 · 2016: 82 · 2015: 74 · 2014: 72 · 2013: 96 · 2012: 87
- FWCI
- 4.01
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- ANU Open Research (Australian National University) (submittedVersion)
- UEA Digital Repository (University of East Anglia) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- David and Lucile Packard Foundation
- Natural England
- Leverhulme Trust
- Royal Society
- University of East Anglia
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Global and Planetary Change › Land Use and Ecosystem Services
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Global and Planetary Change › Conservation, Biodiversity, and Resource Management
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Nature and Landscape Conservation › Ecology and Vegetation Dynamics Studies
- Keywords
- ecosystem services, biodiversity conservation, conservation priorities, ecosystem service mapping, ecoregions, data availability
- MeSH terms
- Carbon, Conservation of Natural Resources, Geography, Maps as Topic, Ecosystem, Biodiversity
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