Using a structured decision analysis to evaluate bald eagle vital signs monitoring in Southwest Alaska National Parks

Abstract

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Planning for people and nature: Comparing quality‐of‐life outcomes across environmental systems to inform conservation planning

“…We also anticipate that future iterations of this process will involve community partners, additional perspectives, and addressing equity in a more comprehensive manner. As indicators become implemented and integrated into these programs, teams can revisit their selection process and consider other strategies or use an approach that compares indicator strategies (e.g., Kolstrom et al, 2020). Expanding the use of structured decision making approaches across a broader spectrum of the conservation assessment and planning process will continue to improve the effectiveness of our conservation programs and our ability to incorporate both people and nature in our conservation goals and decisions.…”

“…Choosing indicators for a conservation program represents an irreversible allocation of resources and therefore is well suited for decision analysis approaches. Maximizing accurate information and the ability to detect system changes requires investing in monitoring programs for indicators, which produces an inherent tradeoff with another common objective, minimizing costs (Kolstrom et al, 2020). Programmatic indicators are particularly challenging to select because those indicators need to connect to individual projects while demonstrating that overall funding and resources are producing large-scale, synergistic benefits (Baldera et al, 2018).…”

“…Decision analysis approaches, like structured decision making, are more commonly used for guiding management decisions for natural resources (Runge et al, 2020), but the benefits of these techniques also apply to selecting indicators (Kolstrom et al, 2020). Decision analysis provides a process for organizations to make decisions in transparent, systematic, and reproducible ways.…”