Increasingly, conservation scientists are recognising that achieving conservation impact, or avoiding loss that would otherwise have occurred, is a fundamental goal of planning. Many of our current conservation targets and techniques for achieving them are means to this end goal. But how effective are those means? In a recent paper, Ed Sacre showed that the conservation impact of investments is not maximised by focusing priorities on minimising costs or achieving representation. Instead, the best strategy was to invest directly in averting threats to biodiversity. Ed’s results from across Queensland were consistent, regardless of the conservation budget. In analysing the data, Ed also developed a novel approach for estimating counterfactual outcomes, or those expected in the absence of further conservation investment. Ed’s paper adds to our understanding of how to predict the conservation impact of interventions and how best to invest in avoiding loss of biodiversity.

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