Testing alternative indicators for biodiversity conservation in old-growth boreal forests:: ecology and economics

In this study, the performance of biodiversity indicators used in the selection of boreal old-growth forest reserves is assessed. The indicators include beetles, birds, vascular plants, wood-inhabiting fungi, and a specified subgroup of assumed indicator species. Our site selection procedure includes information both on ecological variables and on the economic costs incurred from the ecological survey and the opportunity costs of conservation. Complementarity and scoring procedures in site selection are compared. We show that the use of indicators likely results in a loss of species, and therefore, a complete inventory of biodiversity is necessary if the goal is to maintain all species in the landscape. However, the use of indicators seems to be an economically more efficient practice than to execute a large biodiversity survey for habitat protection in our case study. In general, birds and vascular plants seem better indicators than other taxa. A scoring approach performs better than a complementarity approach for indicator taxa containing a small number of species. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.