Priority Threat Management Approach

The Priority Threat Management (PTM) approach finds the best investments in threat abatement and management across regions.

Increasing threatening processes, imperiled biodiversity and limited management resources are some of the greatest biodiversity conservation challenges. The Priority Threat Management (PTM) combines scientific and expert information on the relative benefits, costs and probability of successful implementation to find the best investments in managing threat abatement across regions. For example, we found that saving 45 wildlife species from extinction in the Kimberley region would cost approximately $40m per year in managing fire, grazing, weeds and feral predators.

CSIRO and our collaborators developed and applied the PTM approach across ¼ of the Australian continent, and in Canada, Indonesia and Antarctica. In each region the approach provides guidance on the cost of restoring species across their regional extent, the likelihood of achieving this, and the highest priority actions required to do so. PTM is now applied to abate threats to cultural and socio-economic values of species, ecosystems and places.

For more details, the PTM handbook is published here https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2664.13268

To find out more, contact:  josie.carwardine@csiro.au or iadine.chades@csiro.au