Increasing the Efficiency of Biodiversity Conservation Approaches that Address Habitat Loss, Climate Change, and Resource Overexploitation.

The world’s biodiversity is declining at an alarming rate due to unsustainable anthropogenic activities. Estimates suggest that the financial budget required to conserve the remaining biodiversity is several times larger than what is currently available. This raises the important question of how to efficiently invest in conservation actions. In this dissertation, I explore the factors that contribute to the efficiency of biodiversity conservation actions through four distinct studies. Chapter 2 examines how different temporal patterns of land acquisition by conservation organizations affect their ability to acquire lands with high conservation value. Chapter 3 explores how spatial heterogeneity in the added value of conservation affects the effectiveness of protected area prioritization. Chapter 4 investigates how future shifts in the spatial distribution of freshwater fish and mussels due to climate change and hydropower plants will affect the environmental compliance costs of hydropower operations. Chapter 5 investigates how wealth inequality within a group that collectively shares and manages a finite natural resource influences their harvest. In all four chapters, I rely on process-based models using mathematical tools to investigate the roles of various ecological and economic processes and patterns in determining the efficiency of conservation actions. The findings from these studies suggest three key points for increasing the efficiency of conservation actions: First, market dynamics inform opportunities for conservation actions that have a high return on investment. Second, I identified places where the conservation benefit or cost is disproportionately high, which conservation organizations should be aware of when planning conservation actions. Third, understanding stakeholder characteristics, such as the level of wealth inequality among them, and the impact of conservation actions on these stakeholders is crucial for determining the likelihood of success and the social cost of conservation actions. As the need for effective conservation strategies becomes increasingly urgent in the face of global environmental challenges, this dissertation highlights the importance of strategic conservation planning by offering a framework for making efficient conservation decisions.