Strategic habitats for biodiversity conservation in Florida

Privately owned lands support a large portion of the biodiversity in some a reas but procedures for identifying those private lands critical to the mai ntenance of biodiversity vary tremendously. We used habitat-based distribut ion maps in combination with population conservation goals to help identify strategic habitats on private lands in Florida. We used a vegetation map, occurrence data, and published life-history information to create habitat-b ased distribution maps for 179 rare taxa. We estimated the security of 130 of the taxa by overlaying public land boundaries on habitat maps and then e stimating whether conservation lands satisfied a population goal of support ing at least 10 populations of approximately 200 breeding adults. The remai ning taxa were evaluated in terms of number of occurrence records on conser vation lands. Of the 179 taxa evaluated existing conservation lands did not adequately protect 56. We then identified habitats on private lands that c ould best satisfy the minimum conservation goal or else significantly enhan ce the survival potential of inadequately protected taxa. Strategic habitat s included a mix of large and small sites, incorporated some corridor or st epping-stone connections among habitat patches, and protected multiple spec ies. Additional strategic habitats were identified for shorebirds. four nat ural plant communities, and 105 globally rare plants. The strategic habitat s identified in Florida cover 1.65 million ha (12% of the land area) and wo uld cost $8.2 billion (about 15% of Florida's annual state budget) to purch ase and $122 million per year to manage Existing conservation lands account for 3.07 million ha (22% of the land area).