RobOff: Software for analysis of alternative land-use options and conservation actions

Abstract

Habitat restoration is increasing in importance as a conservation action, compared with more traditional establishment of conservation areas. It is applied, for example, in the context of biodiversity offsetting, in which environmental impacts of economic activity are offset by additional compensating conservation efforts. We present a publicly available decision support software tool for the comparison of ecological impacts of alternative land-use options. Methods implemented account for uncertain consequences of alternative land-use options, including conservation actions. These actions have different costs and effects on different biodiversity features, including species, guilds or habitat types, in different environments. Consequences of actions are uncertain through time, and time discounting is allowed in the investigation of temporal preferences. This tool facilitates analyses relevant for planning of habitat restoration or management, environmental impact avoidance, biodiversity offsetting and scenario development for systematic conservation planning. RobOff derives its name from Robust Offsetting. © 2013 The Authors. Methods in Ecology and Evolution © 2013 British Ecological Society.