An Exercise of Conservation Prioritization and Search of Consensus Using Species Action Plans in Brazil

Abstract

In view of the urgency and multiple targets for biodiversity conservation, and the scarcity of financial resources and political will, it is important to reach a consensus on which actions should be given priority. Multicriteria techniques can contribute to the improvement of the conservation prioritization process and different initiatives and approaches could benefit from their use. Here we present an exercise in prioritizing and seeking consensus using a multicriteria technique to rank the objectives proposed by three national action plans in Brazil. This ranking allowed: 1) to compare whether the order of appearance of the actions in these plans are in fact considered to be priorities by the that drafted these documents; 2) to identify idiosyncrasies between what an official policy document says and what the people responsible for execution think of these actions; and 3) to identify priority actions common to more than one plan - which can optimize the biodiversity conservation process. We identified a lack of congruence between the order of objectives identified in the action plans and the ranking of priorities made by the specialists who prepared these same plans. A set of common objectives was identified as a priority among different Plans. However, these common objectives were not always a priority in their respective Action Plans. We warn that the lack of congruence observed can compromise the execution of some of the general objectives, humpering or even preventing the conservation of the target species of these documents.