The importance of expert knowledge in conservation planning – Comment to an article by C.J. Klein et al.

Abstract: This paper comments and discusses the article ‘Evaluating the influence of candidate terrestrial protected areas on coral reef condition in Fiji׳ by Klein et al. in Marine Policy 44 2014. Klein et al. integrate land-sea planning by optimising the design of Fiji׳s expanded protected area network to benefit coral reefs, while maintaining a terrestrial network that is representative of Fiji׳s various terrestrial ecosystems. They discuss the benefits of various spatial conservation models compared to a candidate protected area network proposed by Fiji׳s Protected Area Committee (FPAC), which is based on expert knowledge and a scoring system. This paper argues that their analyses are best interpreted as the FPAC network outperforming the models proposed by Klein et al. in protecting terrestrial biodiversity. The FPAC network performs better because it includes data that was not available for spatial modelling, especially the percentage of endemic species per ecosystem and the practicalities of protecting an area earmarked for conservation. This suggests that expert knowledge can be an important resource for conservation planning, especially in developing countries, and that spatial conservation planning should harness this knowledge. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]