U.S. Geological Survey
Open-File Report 01-404
Version 1.0
GRA Prospectus: Optimizing Design and Management of Protected Areas
By
Richard
Bernknopf and David Halsing
ABSTRACT Protected areas comprise one major type of global conservation effort that has been in the form of parks, easements, or conservation concessions. Though protected areas are increasing in number and size throughout tropical ecosystems, there is no systematic method for optimally targeting specific local areas for protection, designing the protected area, and monitoring it, or for guiding follow-up actions to manage it or its surroundings over the long run. Without such a system, conservation projects often cost more than necessary and/or risk protecting ecosystems and biodiversity less efficiently than desired. Correcting these failures requires tools and strategies for improving the placement, design, and long-term management of protected areas. The objective of this project is to develop a set of spatially based analytical tools to improve the selection, design, and management of protected areas. In this project, several
conservation concessions will be compared using an economic optimization
technique. The forest land use portfolio model is an integrated assessment
that measures investment in different land uses in a forest. The case
studies of individual tropical ecosystems are developed as forest (land)
use and preservation portfolios in a geographic information system (GIS).
Conservation concessions involve a private organization purchasing development
and resource access rights in a certain area and retiring them. Forests
are put into conservation, and those people who would otherwise have benefited
from extracting resources or selling the right to do so are compensated.
Concessions are legal agreements wherein the exact amount and nature of
the compensation result from a negotiated agreement between an agent of
the conservation community and the local community. Funds are placed in
a trust fund, and annual payments are made to local communities and regional/national
governments. The payments are made pending third-party verification that
the forest expanse and quality have been maintained.
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For questions about the scientific content of this report, contact Richard Bernknopf or David Halsing
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U.S. Department of the Interior, U.S. Geological Survey
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