An evaluation of global conservation effort: constraints and contrasts

SUMMARY

Measures of conservation effort can be expected to be partly dependent on available economic resources. The present study evaluates the relationships between conservation effort and resource availability. The uneven distribution of biodiversity and economic resources, as well as Conservation capacities between developed and developing nations, is also quantified. The absence of a relationship between indicators of conservation capacity and available economic resources suggests a lack of explicit national policy goals and conservation budgets, particularly with regard to the development of a biodiversity-related scientific capacity. A negative relationship between the biodiversity scientific capacity within developing nations and the amount of development aid received may be interpreted as either aid not being effectively channelled into building scientific capacity in the developing world, or it may reflect a lag period between investment and development. The variables reflecting available economic resources appear to play a less significant role in developing nations, than in developed nations. This could be explained by the lower variation within the values of these variables for developing nations, or by the fact that developed nations lie above a minimum economic threshold at which investment in conservation becomes possible. Explicit policy objectives for addressing these shortcomings are proposed.

Key words:

• multivariate
• conservation effort
• industrialised-developing world
• scientific capacity