2.1 Conservation priorities and goals are place-based or affected by place-based management.

Ecuador Priority Areas. Image ©The Nature Conservancy

Conservation Priorities and Goals

You should first understand what your conservation priorities and goals are. Then you can determine if they are place-based or affected by place-based management.

For the purposes of this toolkit, conservation prioritiesare what you aim to conserve, such as ocean and coastal species, habitats, resources, or ecological processes targeted for conservation. Conservation goals are the ways you wish to affect those priorities, such as maintaining current population levels, increasing habitat area by 30%, or protecting 100% of an area.

Conservation organizations should be able to clearly articulate the priorities and long-term goals for a particular site or resource before pursuing a lease or ownership strategy. A goal to simply protect a site is decidedly different from a goal to restore impaired ecological functions. A goal to educate the public may require a very different authorization than undertaking scientific research. The statement of goals should also take into consideration how the current owners view the use and management of the site.

Place-based Nature of Priorities

Leasing and ownership strategies are most appropriate when conservation priorities are place-based or affected by place-based management. Place-based priorities include species, habitats, resources, or ecological processes that are more or less restricted to specific geographic locations. Place-based priorities often include:

• Intertidal and subtidal sediments;
• Flora and fauna attached to sediments; and
• Structures (historical, cultural, or habitat).

Generally, mobile targets such as fish, water, and air cannot be directly leased or owned in the ocean and coastal environments. There are, however, exceptions, such as the sale of fishing concessions in some Latin America countries, which give private entities exclusive rights to fish in specific geographic areas. In some circumstances, mobile priorities may be indirectly protected through leasing or ownership.

Conservation priorities that can be affected by place-based management are those that are influenced by geographically-based threats. Geographically-based threats include activities and structures such as:

• Shoreline hardening and development;
• Over-water structures;
• Aquaculture; and
• Public use and access areas.

Generally, mobile threats such as air pollution, water pollution, and navigation are more difficult to manage through leasing and ownership strategies.

Methods to Identify Priorities and Goals

There's nearly no end to the number of species, habitats, resources, or ecological processes thatconservation organizations could attempt to protect and restore within ocean and coastal environments. As such, determining where to work and what to work on is an essential step in the leasing andownership process. There are at least two distinct ways to sort through the seemingly endless array of possibilities:

1. Taking immediate advantage of opportunities as they arise, or
2. Setting priorities through an established methodical process.

Both options have pros and cons.

Once priority geographies have been established by identifying species, habitats, resources, or ecological processes in need of conservation, an evaluation of threats and strategies can be undertaken. This latter evaluation will help you determine if leasing and ownership can abate the threats to the species and habitats you have identified as needing protection.