Standard 11: Design ecoregional portfolios/biodiversity visions to best meet goals for all conservation targets/ biodiversity elements, using the principles of efficiency, representation, irreplaceability, and functionality. [PLAN]

Rationale
Ad-hoc conservation is blind investment and lacks context. A comprehensive vision (portfolio) should identify a suite of places that contains occurrences of biodiversity targets/elements that are necessary to conserve biodiversity representative of an ecoregion. This vision/portfolio should ensure that the relative contributions of an investment strategy are understood in a regional context. Conservation assessments need to be current to define the present arenas for actions in a comprehensive yet efficient way to inform our actions and those of partners and stakeholders given the changing landscape of biodiversity patterns, threats, and conservation opportunities. In addition, visions/portfolios are the framework for measuring conservation progress within an ecoregion.

Recommended Products

• Description of design goals, criteria, approach, methods, assumptions, tools and rationales.
• Assessment of the conservation management status of lands and waters (e.g. IUCN protected/managed area categories, management strategies such as fire and sustainable water management, invasive species control, etc.).
• Approaches and tools used to generate vision/portfolio (e.g. expert workshops, optimization tools such as SITES, SPOT, MARXAN, EPAT) and rationales.
• For cases where optimization tools have been used, clear descriptions and rationale for inputs and values such as cost surfaces.
• Shape files and maps of areas of biodiversity significance and patterns of threats. Include alternative risk and updated scenarios where available.

Part of the Ecoregional Assessment Toolbox -- a guidance document supporting TNC's Ecoregional Assessement approach for priority setting.