A new guidebook for conservation decisions

Conservation planning often starts with a simple question: where should we focus first? But the answer is rarely simple.

Land managers are working with limited time and funding, across landscapes where many things matter at once – threatened species, important habitats and growing pressures. The information exists, but bringing it together in a way that supports clear, consistent decisions can be difficult.

To help with this, the Tasmanian Land Conservancy (TLC) developed a decision-support tool to identify priority areas for private land conservation across Lutruwita/Tasmania.

We’ve now published a guidebook that sets out how to design, set up and use a conservation prioritisation system like this, based on our experience at TLC.

While it draws on our work in Tasmania, it is intended as a practical resource that others around Australia can adapt to their own landscapes.

As pressures on biodiversity increase and resources remain limited, being able to focus effort where it will have the greatest benefit is becoming increasingly important.

Despite the growing use of data-driven conservation planning, there are relatively few practical resources that explain how to build and apply these systems in a consistent and transparent way. This guidebook aims to help fill that gap.

What the guidebook covers

The guidebook steps through the key components of a conservation prioritisation system (CPS), based on TLC’s experience developing and applying the CPS.

It focuses on practical considerations, including:

• how to select and prepare conservation data
• how to structure and analyse that information
• how to interpret results and apply them in decision-making.

It is intended as a practical starting point for organisations looking to build or refine their own approach.

What is the Conservation Prioritisation System?

The CPS is a practical way to bring different types of conservation data together and use it to guide how we prioritise where to direct our conservation effort. This approach helps support TLC’s reserve management and land purchases by making sure our efforts are focused in areas where we can achieve maximum conservation impact. It was developed over several years, and follows the National Reserve System’s recognised conservation planning principles of CAR or CARE:

Connectedness – keeping habitat linked so species can move

Adequacy – protecting enough habitat to sustain biodiversity

Representativeness – conserving the full variety of ecosystems and species

Efficiency – getting the greatest conservation benefit from available resources

Under the 2030 Strategic Plan, TLC’s goal is to conserve and manage additional land for nature conservation. To align with CARE principles, we aim to ensure that at least 25% of our conservation estate falls within the highest priority category. This is defined as land in the top 90th percentile of the CPS selection frequency (out of 100), or with high irreplaceability.

Bringing information together

The CPS draws on a set of spatial datasets that represent conservation features across Tasmania. Together, these include more than 1,000 individual features across terrestrial and freshwater environments.

Each dataset is like a map showing one aspect of the landscape – such as vegetation, threatened species records or waterways. These datasets come from government sources, scientific surveys and conservation programs built up over many years.

When combined, they create a clearer picture of what matters for conservation.

Rather than looking at each value in isolation, the system helps identify places where multiple important features overlap – areas where protection or management could deliver the greatest overall benefit.

How the priorities are identified

To analyse this information, the CPS uses a tool called Marxan, which is widely used in conservation planning.

Marxan helps identify areas that meet conservation goals as efficiently as possible. In practice, this means highlighting places where action is likely to deliver strong outcomes across several values at once.

For example, an area might rank highly because it connects two intact habitats, supports a threatened species, and contains rare vegetation. Protecting or managing that one place can achieve multiple outcomes.

At TLC, the CPS helps guide:

• where to focus land protection
• which areas within reserves to prioritise for management
• where working with private landholders could have the greatest impact.

It supports more consistent and transparent decision-making, particularly when choices are complex or resources are limited.

The new guidebook explains how this approach was developed, and how others can apply similar methods in their own regions.

By sharing this guidebook, we aim to make it easier for organisations to take a structured approach to conservation planning – and to make clearer decisions about where action is needed most.

The better we understand the landscape, the better we can care for it.

Download the guidebook.

This project was supported by the Barbara Thomas Fellowships for Excellence in Conservation Program through The Nature Conservancy Australia.

Banner photo of Brown Mountain by Rob Blakers.