1.Identifying ecosystem service priorities within the grassland biome
In the first set of analyses, planning for individual ecosystem services showed that between 4% and 13% of the grassland biome was required to conserve at least 40% of water services and 50% of the soil services in the grassland. When planning for carbon only, 34% of the biome was needed to produce 40% of the total carbon. In the second set of analyses, planning for all services in scenario 1 showed that only 17% of the grassland biome was required to produce 20% of the water and carbon services plus 50% of soil services. The area selected for conservation interventions to enhance delivery of ecosystem services when planning for ecosystem services did not necessarily increase with an increase in the number of 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