@misc{MenaresBarrazaMarkovaNenovaSturmetal., author = {Menares-Barraza, Esteban and Markova-Nenova, Nonka and Sturm, Astrid and W{\"a}tzold, Frank and Birkhofer, Klaus}, title = {Cost-effective conservation of multiple goals in grasslands : synergies and trade-offs}, series = {Biological conservation}, volume = {311}, journal = {Biological conservation}, publisher = {Elsevier BV}, address = {Amsterdam}, issn = {0006-3207}, doi = {10.1016/j.biocon.2025.111401}, pages = {1 -- 13}, abstract = {Permanent grasslands in Europe are essential for biodiversity and the provision of ecosystem services, but are increasingly threatened by land-use intensification. In the past, grassland conservation has mainly focused on "traditional" conservation goals such as species richness and endangered species, but has rarely considered alternative goals that address trophic interactions, ecosystem services, or ecosystem resilience. Using data from the research platform Biodiversity Exploratories, we adapted an existing optimization procedure to optimize single and joint conservation goals for butterfly and plant communities in grasslands in two regions in Germany. For all grassland sites, we assessed the costs associated with each management measure and the ecological state measured by multiple attributes. For each region, we ran three optimizations: one ecological (budget-unconstrained), and two cost-effectiveness optimizations with a low and a medium budget (budget-constrained). We compared selected grassland management measures, their costs, and ecological effects for different goals between optimizations and between different goals within the same optimization. Cost-effectiveness optimization can achieve high levels of conservation goals with low budgets, reaching up to 80\% of the maximum achievable in the ecological optimizations while requiring only 30\% of the budget. Trade-offs with other goals were inevitable but were minimized by jointly optimizing over multiple goals. Optimization results and trade-offs varied between regions, highlighting the need to design and implement region-specific management measures. Our study shows that promoting multiple conservation goals simultaneously across taxonomic boundaries is an ecologically and economically viable option.}, language = {en} } @misc{GerlingDrechslerLeinsetal., author = {Gerling, Charlotte and Drechsler, Martin and Leins, Johannes A. and Sturm, Astrid and W{\"a}tzold, Frank}, title = {Cost-effective instruments for biodiversity conservation under climate change - the need for flexibility}, series = {Ecological economics}, volume = {227}, journal = {Ecological economics}, publisher = {Elsevier BV}, address = {Amsterdam}, issn = {0921-8009}, doi = {10.1016/j.ecolecon.2024.108414}, pages = {1 -- 13}, abstract = {Climate change is one of the main threats for biodiversity. As it affects the ecological and economic system, conservation costs and impacts may change in a heterogeneous manner. This implies that cost-effective conservation sites and measures may no longer be so in the future. We investigate spatial flexibility (to adapt the location of conservation sites) and management flexibility (to adapt the conservation measures on those sites) as novel criteria for analysing the cost-effectiveness of policy instruments to conserve biodiversity under climate change. We develop a generic climate-ecological-economic modelling approach that captures the role of spatial and management flexibility to assess the cost-effectiveness of policy instruments. We apply the modelling approach to the conservation of an indicator species in agricultural grasslands in a case study area in Northern Germany, and compare the cost-effectiveness of the policy instruments of land purchase (low spatial flexibility, high management flexibility) and long-term individual conservation contracts (medium spatial and management flexibility) considering a period from 2020 to 2079. We find that both spatial and management flexibility matter in the case study and discuss their broader relevance for conservation in a changing climate.}, language = {en} } @misc{GerlingDrechslerKadiretal., author = {Gerling, Charlotte and Drechsler, Martin and Kadir, Karmand and Kahlau, Bojan and Leins, Johannes and Sturm, Astrid and W{\"a}tzold, Frank}, title = {ClimeHop : an interactive app for teaching cost-effective biodiversity conservation under climate change}, series = {The journal of economic education}, volume = {56}, journal = {The journal of economic education}, number = {2}, publisher = {Routledge, Taylor \& Francis}, address = {Abingdon, Oxon}, issn = {2152-4068}, doi = {10.1080/00220485.2025.2461066}, pages = {202 -- 203}, language = {en} }