Decision Making for Conservation

What separates conservation biology from ecology is the necessity to make decisions about the most beneficial course of action for species or ecosystem management. This requires consideration of ecological, political, economic and social issues. I am using multi-criteria decision-making processes to guide conservation priorities at a state-wide level in California that address key issues related to park land requirements of California residents, public safety issues from increased natural threats arising from urban expansion, habitat preservation, agricultural land and ranchland preservation, maintenance of wetlands, and declining forest lands due to urban and suburban development. I am particularly interested in the social dimension of decision making for conservation and am currently incorporating methods for group decision making and consensus into multi-criteria decision making frameworks. I am also using methods developed in engineering to deal with the massive uncertainty involved in conservation decision making.

Relevant papers

Colyvan, M. and H.M. Regan. Legal decisions and the reference class problem (in review).

Hierl, L.A., J. Franklin, D.H. Deutschman, and H.M. Regan. Assessing and prioritizing ecological communities for monitoring in a regional habitat conservation plan (in review).

Steele, K.S., H.M. Regan, M. Colyvan and M.A. Burgman. Right decisions or happy decision makers (in press)

Regan, H.M., F.W. Davis, S.J. Andelman, A. Widyanata and M. Freese. Comprehensive criteria for biodiversity evaluation in conservation planning. Biodiversity and Conservation, (in press).

Regan, H.M., M. Colyvan and L. Markovchick-Nicolls. A formal model for consensus and negotiation in environmental management. Journal of Environmental Management 80:167-176, 2006.

Halpern B.S., H.M. Regan, H.P. Possingham, M.A. McCarthy. Accounting for uncertainty in marine reserve design. Ecology Letters, 9:2-11, 2006.

Halpern B.S., H.M. Regan, H.P. Possingham, M.A. McCarthy. Rejoinder: uncertainty and decision making. Ecology Letters 9(1):13-14, 2006.

Regan, H.M., Y. Ben-Haim, B. Langford, W.G. Wilson, P. Lundberg, S.J. Andelman, and M.A. Burgman. Robust decision making under severe uncertainty for conservation management. Ecological Applications, 15(4):1471-1477, 2005.

Keith, D.A., M.A. McCarthy, H.M. Regan, T.J. Regan, C. Bowles, C. Drill, C. Craig, B. Pellow, M.A. Burgman, L.L. Master, M. Ruckelshaus, B. McKenzie, S.J. Andelman, P.R. Wade. Protocols for listing threatened species can forecast extinction. Ecology Letters, 7:1101-1108, 2004.

Andelman, S.J., C. Groves, and H.M. Regan. A review of the U.S. Forest Service's selection process of species at risk for viability assessments. Acta Oecologica, 26:75-83, 2004.

Colyvan, M., H.M. Regan, and S. Ferson. Is it a crime to belong to a reference class?, The Journal of Political Philosophy, 9(2):168-181, 2001.
Also reprinted in H. Kyburg and M. Thalos (eds.) Probability is the Very Guide in Life, Open Court, Chicago, pp. 331-347, 2003.

Davis, F.W., D.M. Stoms, C.J. Costello, E.A. Machado, J. Metz, R. Gerrard, S. Andelman, H. Regan, and R. Church 2003. A framework for setting land conservation priorities using multi-criteria scoring and an optimal fund allocation strategy. Report to the Resources Agency of California. National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis, Santa Barbara. 72 pp.

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