Sequencing Conservation Actions Through Threat Assessments in the Southeastern United States

The identification of conservation priorities is one of the leading issues in conservation biology. We present a project of The Nature Conservancy, called Sequencing Conservation Actions, which prioritizes conservation areas and identifies foci for crosscutting strategies at various geographic scales. We use the term “Sequencing” to mean an ordering of actions over time and “Conservation Actions” to represent strategies implemented both at and across conservation areas, and from local to global scales. There are three outcomes of the Sequencing Project. The first is the ranking of conservation areas into four sequencing categories based on Relative Biodiversity Value and Relative Threat Status. These categories are: 1) Now, Right Now: conservation areas to be addressed immediately, 2) Now: conservation areas to be addressed in 3-5 years, 3) Soon: conservation areas that can be addressed in 5-10 years, and 4) Later: conservation areas that can be addressed in more than 10 years. The second outcome is the identification of foci for cross-cutting strategies based on common threats. It is around these foci that strategies can be developed. The third outcome compares Relative Conservation Opportunities across priority conservation areas. The results enable a conservation entity to effectively prioritize actions across conservation areas.