A resource allocation model for tiger habitat protection

Habitat conservation is critical to the survival of endangered tigers. This paper develops a resource-allocation model for the protection of tiger habitats, using information on threats to particular tiger subspecies, the quality of remaining habitat areas, the observed effectiveness of habitat protection by country, and the potential costs of protection projects in74 habitats in Asia. This model will be implemented in two stages. The first stage involves using user-specified weights to combine numerous sub-indices into composite indices, covering threats to species, habitat quality, potential project costs and the effectiveness of protections. At the second stage, additional user-specified weights are used to combine the composite indices into priority scores and potential project budget shares for all 74 habitat areas. Results suggest that changes in user-specified weights can have very a significant impact on habitat priority scores. Illustrative scenarios indicate that the model can make a useful contribution by identifying priority orderings that are consistent with different sets of preferences. It will also provide feedback to decision makers regarding the implicit preferences associated with their resource allocation decisions.