Skip to main content
Journal cover image

Timing of Protection of Critical Habitat Matters

Publication ,  Journal Article
Martin, TG; Camaclang, AE; Possingham, HP; Maguire, LA; Chadès, I
Published in: Conservation Letters
May 1, 2017

With many conservation issues requiring urgent action, determining how much data are needed to inform good decisions is a common problem. We examine this problem in relation to the protection of critical habitat, the habitat required for species’ recovery and persistence. The protection of critical habitat is an essential step in the threatened species recovery process. It is also one of the most contentious and protracted decisions faced by environmental agencies. Uncertainty about what constitutes critical habitat, and the challenges of balancing competing societal objectives and of protecting critical habitat once identified are stalling the recovery process. We offer insight into this challenge by investigating how long we can afford to spend identifying critical habitat before opportunities to recover a species are lost. We illustrate our decision model using Canada's threatened northern abalone (Haliotis kamtschatkana). Our method delivers the stopping time at which habitat protection must begin, despite uncertainty, in order to avoid an unacceptable risk of extinction.

Duke Scholars

Altmetric Attention Stats
Dimensions Citation Stats

Published In

Conservation Letters

DOI

EISSN

1755-263X

Publication Date

May 1, 2017

Volume

10

Issue

3

Start / End Page

308 / 316

Related Subject Headings

  • Ecology
 

Citation

APA
Chicago
ICMJE
MLA
NLM
Martin, T. G., Camaclang, A. E., Possingham, H. P., Maguire, L. A., & Chadès, I. (2017). Timing of Protection of Critical Habitat Matters. Conservation Letters, 10(3), 308–316. https://doi.org/10.1111/conl.12266
Martin, T. G., A. E. Camaclang, H. P. Possingham, L. A. Maguire, and I. Chadès. “Timing of Protection of Critical Habitat Matters.” Conservation Letters 10, no. 3 (May 1, 2017): 308–16. https://doi.org/10.1111/conl.12266.
Martin TG, Camaclang AE, Possingham HP, Maguire LA, Chadès I. Timing of Protection of Critical Habitat Matters. Conservation Letters. 2017 May 1;10(3):308–16.
Martin, T. G., et al. “Timing of Protection of Critical Habitat Matters.” Conservation Letters, vol. 10, no. 3, May 2017, pp. 308–16. Scopus, doi:10.1111/conl.12266.
Martin TG, Camaclang AE, Possingham HP, Maguire LA, Chadès I. Timing of Protection of Critical Habitat Matters. Conservation Letters. 2017 May 1;10(3):308–316.
Journal cover image

Published In

Conservation Letters

DOI

EISSN

1755-263X

Publication Date

May 1, 2017

Volume

10

Issue

3

Start / End Page

308 / 316

Related Subject Headings

  • Ecology