SmartConservation?: A Biodiversity-Based Methodology for Prioritizing Natural Resources for Conservation

• Author: Clare Billett and Coreen Ripp
• Pages: 127-137

Chapter 10

SmartConservation™:A

Biodiversity-Based Methodology for

Prioritizing Natural Resources for

Conservation

by Clare Billett and Coreen Ripp

I. Introduction

Governmental agencies, private foundations, and land trusts struggle every

day to decide how to most effectively allocate limited conservation funding

to achieve the most meaningful protection of natural resources. Todo this, it

is important to identify and prioritize the natural areas that are not only the

most important for protection and/or restoration projects, but also those that

will best respond to such efforts and are most likely to be lost without protec-

tion. Often, these prioritizations are based upon an assessment of one “indi-

cator” or one of many possible criteria, or rely upon comparisons derived

from the use of inconsistent scientific analysis. These types of assessments

are limited in their ability to truly capture the status and quality of a site.

Natural Lands Trust (NLT), a nonprofit organization committed to pro-

tecting significant natural and ecological lands in the Philadelphia, Pennsyl-

vania, region, recognized the limitations of existing tools to proactively

identify and prioritize important lands for protection. In response, the orga-

nization initiated the development of the “SmartConservation™” methodol-

ogy for prioritizing natural areas for protection. This methodology relies on

the development and use of two new assessment tools: (1) consistent, multi-

ple, conservation assessment criteria; and (2) an ecoregionally calibrated

analysis of remaining critical natural lands. Through the combination of as-

sessments based on a variety of different criteria conducted at the landscape

scale, the relative value (and therefore the protection and implied restoration

priority) of each site can be more effectively identified. In addition,

SmartConservation™ relies on consideration of development potential and

community support at a site to determine the level of urgency or the opportu-

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