A USFWS worker releases a California condor into the wild. The birds were brought back from the brink in the 1980s thanks to a successful breeding program. Source: USFS

Conservation actions taken under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) have prevented many extinctions in the U.S., but few listed species have recovered to the point where they can have the ESA protections removed. A major reason for this is a shortfall in funding, raising a conundrum for agencies responsible for species recovery -- should limited resources be allocated toward species facing imminent extinction or species whose long-term survival can most benefit from investment?

Now a new tool is available to help guide conservation scientists in making decisions on how to best use limited funds to conserve the greatest number of species. The Recovery Explorer, developed by Arizona State University researchers in collaboration with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFS), can be used to evaluate potential consequences of alternative resource allocation strategies.

It can be used to examine how different values-based inputs, such as desires for taxonomic representation or regional parity in funding, influence optimal allocation and recovery outcomes. It also looks at the effect of uncertainty in technical inputs, including extinction risk and cost, on funding allocation and outcomes.