3.2. Aligning ecosystem service priority areas with biodiversity
priority areas
Focussing conservation on areas that are important for provision
of various ecosystem services might benefit biodiversity and vice
versa, especially if similar management regimes are required. At
least this was the case as shown by results from Scenario 4 and
overlap between Scenario 2 and biodiversity priority area. The
percentage area of the grassland selected to meet targets for both
ecosystem services and biodiversity priorities in Scenario 4 was
only slightly higher (40%) than that for Scenario 2 (35%) where
biodiversity was not considered in the plan. About 40% overlap was
observed between priorities selected for Scenario 2 with both
freshwater and terrestrial biodiversity priorities (Table 2). An 86%
overlap was observed between the integrated plan and freshwater
priorities and 47% overlap with terrestrial priorities.