Integrating biodiversity, ecosystem services and socio-economic data to identify priority areas and landowners for conservation actions at the national scale

Gaps in research exist for country-wide analyses to identify areas of particular importance for biodiversity and ecosystem services to help reach Aichi Target 11 in developing countries. Here we provide a spatial conservation prioritization approach that ranks landowners for maximizing the representation of biodiversity features and ecosystem services, while exploring the trade-offs with agricultural and commercial forestry production and land cost, using Uruguay as a case study. Specifically, we explored four policy scenarios, ranging from a business as usual scenario where only biodiversity and ecosystem services were included in the analysis to a potentially unsustainable scenario where expansion of alternative land uses and economic development would be given higher priority over biodiversity and ecosystem services. At the 17% land target proposed for conservation, the representation levels for biodiversity and ecosystem services were, on average, higher under the business as usual scenario. However, a small addition to the proposed target (from 17 to 20%) allowed to meet same representation levels for biodiversity and ecosystem services, while decreasing conflict with agricultural and commercial forestry production and opportunity costs to local landowners. Under the unsustainable scenario, a striking 41% addition to the conservation target (from 17 to 58%) was needed to meet same representation levels for threatened ecosystems and ecosystem services, which are crucial to sustain human well-being. Our results highlight that more realistic and potentially higher conservation targets, than politically set targets, can be achieved at the country level when sustainable development needs are also accounted for.