Conservation Analyst

What?

The conservation analyst is a web-based tool that integrates and weighs multiple criteria for spatial conservation planning allowing for the identification and selection of unprotected land areas presenting high values in terms of biodiversity and key ecosystem services such as species richness, carbon and water storage at global level. It provides users with a computationally efficient way to identify geographical areas of conservation importance based on varying priorities.

Why?

As countries and regions mature through the conservation planning process, they generally start with plans derived from larger planning units at the national scale, and then subsequently progress to high resolution sub-national plans during later iterations. This natural evolution emphasises the need for decision support tools that fill the gap in functionality between web-based platforms and systematic conservation planning software, especially for developing countries in the early stages of the spatial conservation planning process.

How?

The Conservation Analyst Tool can further be used to identify high-priority conservation areas according to different criteria. Users can access country statistics, show changes in country statistics when weights are applied to the variables and areas already protected are removed, select a high-priority area, and showcase the characteristics of the selected area in a radar plot.