Cost-effective Conservation Planning for Species at Risk in Saskatchewan’s Milk River Watershed: The Efficiency Gains of a Multi-species Approach

Abstract

The federal Species at Risk Act requires economic analyses to be included in species at risk recovery plans. Recovery plans are often completed species by species and their economic analyses fail to employ modern analytical methods. A unique multi-species at risk recovery plan within Saskatchewan’s Milk River Watershed provided the opportunity to calculate costs associated with native grassland conservation, develop optimization models that create cost-effective grassland conservation designs, compare the costs of cost-effective conservation designs with the costs of current proposed critical habitat polygons, and assess the improvements in efficiency associated with multi-species plans relative to single species plans. The cost-effective conservation plans were designed using Marxan software and included both direct and opportunity costs. The results of the optimization models suggest there is a potential for large efficiency gains if economic considerations are included in habitat conservation plans and if conservation plans are created for multiple species simultaneously.