Identifying Diverse Conservation Values for Place-Based Spatial Planning Using Crowdsourced Voluntary Geographic Information

ABSTRACT

The values of conservationists and planners will affect their decisions, tools, and practice, while the values of the public will affect the social acceptability of different management actions and, consequently, the likely success of implementation. This study investigates how voluntary geographic information systems (VGI) can be used to identify areas important for anthropocentric and biocentric values across a spatial planning region to inform place-based conservation planning. The study also identified anthropocentric–biocentric areas where both anthropocentric and biocentric values were assigned to the same location. Differences in local knowledge and number of visits were observed between value orientations. Differences in distance to marine reserves, conservation land, and residential areas were also observed. The study highlighted how VGI can be a useful tool to encourage awareness and engagement initial stages of the planning cycle while providing spatial data to identify place-based conservation opportunities across diverse conservation values.

KEYWORDS:

• Anthropocentric
• biocentric
• crowdsourced participation
• spatial planning
• values
• voluntary geographic information

Acknowledgments

This article was developed from a presentation awarded Best Student Paper at the Society for Conservation Biology 2014 Conference in Fiji. The authors extend their thanks to the conference organizers and participants, and to S. Pointing of the Institute for Applied Ecology New Zealand for providing the travel bursary for R. J. to attend. This project was conducted with the support of the Sea Change—Tai Timu Tai Pari marine spatial planning partnership involving mana whenua, Auckland Council, Waikato Regional Council, the Hauraki Gulf Forum, the Department of Conservation, and the Ministry for Primary Industries. The survey was designed and implemented within the online spatial planning tool Seasketch, designed by the McClintock Lab at the University of California Santa Barbara and licensed for use in New Zealand by the Department of Conservation. In particular, we extend our thanks to D. McCarthy, W. Trusewich, and I. Pohl for their assistance and support. No financial assistance was provided by the Sea Change—Tai Timu Tai Pari partners, and the authors declare no conflict of interest. We also acknowledge the many people who participated in the survey, as well as C. Raymond and N. Garrett, who provided advice and peer review on methodology.