A decision-making model of land acquisition for wildlife conservation in southern Illinois.
详细信息
文摘
Land acquisition to strengthen public-land-based conservation networks is necessary and imperative for effective wildlife resource conservation and management. Current conservation evaluation approaches lack appropriate means to comprehensively address ecological and economic issues in making land acquisition decisions. With special application to southern Illinois grassland birds and habitats,a flexible decision-making model for land acquisition was developed within an ecological-economic framework for regional wildlife resource conservation and management. This model was based on a habitat-patch-oriented evaluation technique that integrated GIS technology and landscape ecological theories with the strength of multiple criteria evaluation approaches,Gap analysis,and multiple site selection approaches to facilitate Cost-effectiveness analysis in land acquisition decision making. Land use and land ownership data were used to develop a distribution base map of available rural grassland habitats. After using special techniques to treat unrealistic strip-like patch connection and separation,339 rural grassland patches ＞100 ha were identified in 9 southern Illinois counties. Distribution data of 18 grassland and 20 non-grassland bird species based on township and section layers were used to develop species and family layers with assistance of Relative Abundance Index,Seasonal Weights,and Species Category Coefficients. Grassland patches were evaluated by 2 categories of criteria. Habitat criteria that established patch area,habitat component,and road/railroad indices reflected general patch quality for grassland birds. Wildlife criteria that established species richness,representativeness,and species status indices reflected historic-data-based distribution. Final Patch Index FPI) derived from these 2 categories of indices served as a conservation value surrogate for each patch. Based on the FPI and land price data,a cost-effectiveness analysis was performed for each patch to generate an Effectiveness/Cost E/C) ratio for final land acquisition prioritization. Analysis results revealed that FPI did not solely depend on habitat area if the basic area requirement was satisfied. Land price significantly influenced grassland patch selection order,which suggested that the economic factor should be seriously considered in land acquisition practices. Sensitivity analysis indicated that the model was robust whether or not the cost factor was considered. The discussion focused on the issues associated with 3 main conservation evaluation approaches and economic issues related to wildlife valuation. This would enable decision-makers to thoroughly understand the application background of this model and to modify this model to address specific issues of land acquisition decision-making for wildlife resource conservation and management.