Predicting return on investment of biodiversity conservation measures

人类驱动的环境变化导致预测我们正在进入第六次大规模物种灭绝事件。尽管一些地方物种保护取得了成功，但物种的整体保护状况仍在下降，迫切需要科学为各国如何应对这一挑战提供战略指导。世界上大多数国家都同意通过《生物多样性公约》这样做，迄今为止的努力表明，要实现这一目标，必须采取高级别战略方针。该项目将制定一种基于威胁的物种保护办法，探讨通过减轻某一特定地点或国家的不同威胁来减少物种灭绝风险的可能性。这将使各国能够确定有利于大量物种的行动。学生将在一系列政策和管理相关的空间尺度（如国家和项目地点）和跨地理区域开展案例研究。现有全球物种数据可用于开发该方法，该项目将探索其他数据源，以增强该方法的预测能力、空间分辨率和国家对该过程的所有权。学生将培养在全球和国家范围内概念化保护挑战的能力，并确定数据需求和来源，以应对这些挑战。他们将获得操纵、管理和分析大型数据集的经验，并将方法和发现传达给政策和管理受众以及科学家。他们将通过国际自然保护联盟和一系列已经表示对这项工作感兴趣的国家，与一个由保护科学家和实践者组成的全球网络密切合作。

Human-driven changes to the environment have led to predictions that we are entering the sixth mass species extinction event. Despite some local species conservation successes, the overall conservation status of species continues to decline and there is a pressing need for science to contribute strategic guidance on how countries can tackle this challenge. Most of the world's countries have agreed to do this through the Convention on Biological Diversity and efforts to date indicate that a high level strategic approach is necessary to achieve this. The project will develop a threat-based approach to species conservation by exploring the potential reduction in species extinction risk that could be achieved through mitigation of different threats in a particular location or country. This would allow countries to identify action that could benefit large numbers of species. The student will develop case studies at a range of policy and management relevant spatial scales, such as country and project site, and across geographic regions. There are global species data available that can used to develop this approach, and the project will explore other data sources to enhance the predictive capability of the approach, its spatial resolution and national ownership of the process. The student will develop the ability to conceptualise conservation challenges at global and national scales and identify data needs and sources to address those challenges. They will gain experience of manipulating, curating and analysing large data sets and communicating approaches and findings to policy and management audiences, as well as scientists. They will work closely with a global network of conservation scientists and practitioners, through the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, and a suite of countries that have already expressed an interest in this work.