Ecosystem Assesment & Reporting (EAR) Tool

Overview

With an overwhelming amount of conservation work urgently needed, conservation decision-makers are often faced to make decisions in an atmosphere of uncertainty and, sometimes, without a complete understanding of the different factors that can affect the environment. This is particularly true in developing countries where data are often limited and of poor quality, being outdated or inaccurate. Consequently, there is a tremendous need for developing decision-support tools that are able to easily access and integrate available data in a quick and efficient manner. Such tools help to minimize risk and anticipate the second- and third-order effects that may result from a decision. The ability to make informed decisions which consider unforeseen circumstances is a fundamental and powerful way to achieve efficient and effective environmental management, conservation of biodiversity, and sustainable development.

The Inter-American Biodiversity Information Network (IABIN) recognizes the need to develop decision-support tools for conservation decision-makers. It is of utmost importance to IABIN that useful biodiversity information is readily available to decision-makers in both the public and private sectors. The development of the Ecosystem Assessment and Reporting (EAR) tool responds directly to that need and demonstrates how data from the IABIN Ecosystems and Protected Area Thematic Networks (ETN and PATN) can be effectively integrated and used in the decision making process to guide and enhance environmental management decisions. The tool is provided in both Internet-based Server and Desktop versions, providing a “manager’s dashboard” approach for querying current spatial information on ecosystem condition, socioeconomic threat to these ecosystem, and protected area management status.

By integrating biodiversity, socioeconomic and protected area datasets, the Ecosystem Assessment and Reporting Tool provides a simple, but powerful interface designed to answer questions such as “Which ecosystems are least protected?” “Of these ecosystems, where and how do we need to improve management?” and “Where are the opportunities to most efficiently reduce threats to these ecosystems?” The EAR tool has been designed around The Nature Conservancy’s (TNC) approach for calculating “Effective Conservation” (Higgins et al, 2007). This approach is a way of measuring progress towards achieving established conservation goals for ecosystems (i.e. raising the needle). An ecosystem achieves effective conservation when the biodiversity of an ecosystem is expected to persist as a result of conservation actions. The framework for calculating the level of effective conservation uses three measures in combination:

Viability Status - the biological potential for a given ecosystem to persist (e.g. ecosystem size, condition, and landscape context).
Threats Status - the degree of anticipated negative impact (i.e. socio-economic activity) to a given ecosystem (e.g. severity, scope of threat).
Conservation Management Status - the likelihood that management activities will secure biodiversity and allow it to persist within a protected area (e.g. intent, tenure, and effective management potential).

For additional information on The Nature Conservancy’s Ecoregional Status Measures and methods for calculating Effective Conservation, please download and read Higgins et al, 2007.