Journal
BIOLOGICAL CONSERVATION
Volume 143, Issue 8, Pages 1876-1884Publisher
ELSEVIER SCI LTD
DOI: 10.1016/j.biocon.2010.04.037
Keywords
Dynamic reserve selection; Mesobromion; Conservation planning; Partial set covering problem; Calcareous grassland
Funding
- Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research (WSL)
- Federal Office for the Environment (FOEN)
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Development pressure on reserve networks in densely populated countries may lead to the decision to allow for replacement compensation. Replacement ratios used for specifying replacement compensation are usually based on expert judgment. In contrast, we propose a method to estimate replacement ratios based on the set covering framework. The method is applied to presence-absence data of vascular plants of the dry grassland inventory of Switzerland. For the replacement of 60% of a patch's high conservation value species by the same vegetation type (in-kind compensation), the estimated replacement ratios are <5 for most vegetation types. These ratios are comparable with replacement ratios usually used in practice. Our replacement ratio estimates for replacement by another vegetation type (out-of-kind compensation) are considerable higher than proposed by the literature. For oligotroph dry grassland associations, the replacement rations are extremely high, so that these associations have to be considered irreplaceable. The estimated replacement ratios provide a good starting point for designing compensation measures for unavoidable losses in a reserve system. However, additional biodiversity conservation goals should be considered when designing replacement compensation in practice. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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