WCS 3-Sentence Science

Planning for Change on Colombia’s Savannahs

January 9, 2020

CREDIT: PATO SALCEDO/WCS

Each year, Wildlife Conservation Society scientists publish more than 300 peer-reviewed studies and papers. “WCS 3-Sentence Science” is a regular tip-sheet — in bite sized helpings — of some of this published work.

Here we present work by WCS on the use of a post-conflict land-use planning framework in the savannahs of Colombia.

1. Researchers present a new, spatially explicit, land-use planning framework that addresses the decision-making needed to account for different, competing economic-environment objectives (agricultural production value, biodiversity conservation, ecosystem service retention) when land use change is inevitable within an intact landscape.
2. They applied the framework to the globally significant savannahs of the Orinoquia (Colombia), which in a post-conflict era is under increased agricultural development pressure.
3. They identified planning solutions that perform well across all objectives simultaneously, despite trade-offs among them, providing an evidence base to inform proactive planning and the development of environmentally sensible agricultural development policy and practice in the region.

Study and Journal: “Minimising the loss of biodiversity and ecosystem services in an intact landscape under risk of rapid agricultural development” from Environmental Research Letters
WCS Co-Author(s): Brooke Williams (Lead), WCS/University of Queensland; Hedley Gantham, Conservation Science and Solutions; James Watson, Director, Science and Research Solutions; Silvia Alvarez, Field Consultant, WCS Colombia; German Forero-Medina, Species and Science Director, WCS Colombia

For more information, contact: Stephen Sautner, 718–220–3682, ssautner@wcs.org.