CHRIS MARGULES is Executive Director at the Melanesia Centre for Biodiversity Conservation, Conservation International.

SAHOTRA SARKAR is Professor in the Section of Integrative Biology at the University of Texas at Austin.

Systematic Conservation Planning provides a clear, comprehensive guide to the process of deriving a conservation area network for regions, which will best represent the biodiversity of regions in the most cost-effective way. The measurement of biodiversity, design of field sampling strategies, alongside different data treatment methods are detailed helping to provide a conceptual framework for identifying conservation area networks, underpinned by the concept of complementarity. Setting conservation targets and then multi-criteria analyses, using complementarity but bringing in other criteria reflecting competing uses of land or water, to show how conservation area networks can achieve conservation targets in ways that also allow for the production of food, fiber and shelter are also discussed. Providing a clear procedure for identifying conservation priority areas underpinned by cutting edge science, this book will be of interest to graduate students, academics, planners and decision makers dealing with natural resource use and exploitation, alongside conservation NGOs.