Funding Biodiversity Conservation

Background:

Thousands of species of plants and animals face threats that could result in their extinction, while biodiversity conservation actions that could save them are often available. Conservation managers face difficult decisions when there is limited funding for biodiversity conservation. Managers need to decide which projects they should fund to best achieve their objectives, not the least of which is to save the most species. This is particularly important if the benefits of certain conservation actions vary across projects, the costs of these actions for specific projects differ, and the available funding for these actions is considerably less than is needed to support all proposed projects.

One issue that makes this a more difficult problem is the varying timeline and life cycle of each project. Conservation projects can take years or decades, and the schedule of when costs are incurred during the project can vary significantly depending on the project's scope, location, targeted species, and responsible agency. This means that budgets for conservation projects must provide adequate funds for the entire lifetime of the project. Additionally, managers need to closely monitor their budgets to efficiently allocate funds as demand for resources vary across projects and time. For example, they need to ensure they have adequate resources available for times when some projects require more funding, and take advantage of times when some projects require less.