Optimal land conservation decisions for multiple species

TL;DR

This paper introduces a mixed-integer optimization model to assist land conservation decisions involving multiple species, accounting for ecological interactions and constraints to optimize land protection strategies.

Contribution

It presents a novel optimization framework that incorporates predator-prey dynamics and crowding effects for multi-species land conservation planning.

Findings

Model effectively balances ecological goals with land use constraints

Provides a computational tool for multi-species conservation decision-making

Enhances understanding of ecological interactions in land protection strategies

Abstract

Given an allotment of land divided into parcels, government decision-makers, private developers, and conservation biologists can collaborate to select which parcels to protect, in order to accomplish sustainable ecological goals with various constraints. In this paper, we propose a mixed-integer optimization model that considers the presence of multiple species on these parcels, subject to predator-prey relationships and crowding effects.