Reconciling the triple bottom line of social equity, economic return, and environmental benefits in conservation decision making (2014-2019)

In biodiversity conservation, achieving social equity along with economic and environmental benefits - the triple bottom line - is commonly seen as the key to successful outcomes. Although social equity (equitable distribution of benefits or costs to people) can be critical to conservation success, it can compromise other goals, leading to inadequate or expensive conservation outcomes. We will determine how, and in what cases, equity influences the probability of success of a conservation plan or policy and, in turn, economic and environmental benefits. Further, we will explicitly incorporate social equity into spatial prioritization approaches so that we can more accurately identify triple bottom line solutions to conserve biodiversity.