Given declines in biodiversity and ecosystem services, funding to support conservation must be invested effectively. However, funds for conservation often come with geographic restrictions on where they can be spent. We introduce a method to demonstrate to supporters of conservation how much more could be achieved if they were to allow greater flexibility over conservation funding. Specifically, we calculated conservation exchange rates that summarized gains in conservation outcomes available if funding originating in one location could be invested elsewhere. We illustrate our approach by considering nongovernmental organization funding and major federal programs within the US and a range of conservation objectives focused on biodiversity and ecosystem services. We show that large improvements in biodiversity and ecosystem service provision are available if geographic constraints on conservation funding were loosened. Finally, we demonstrate how conservation exchange rates can be used to spotlight promising opportunities for relaxing geographic funding restrictions.

中文翻译：

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使用空间汇率乘以保护资金的影响

鉴于生物多样性和生态系统服务的下降，必须有效地投资支持保护的资金。然而，保护资金的使用地点往往受到地理限制。我们引入了一种方法，向保护支持者展示，如果他们在保护资金方面允许更大的灵活性，可以取得多大的成就。具体来说，我们计算了保护汇率，总结了如果来自一个地点的资金可以投资到其他地方时可获得的保护成果的收益。我们通过考虑美国境内的非政府组织资助和主要联邦计划以及一系列关注生物多样性和生态系统服务的保护目标来说明我们的方法。我们表明，如果放宽对保护资金的地理限制，生物多样性和生态系统服务的提供可以得到大幅改善。最后，我们展示了如何利用保护汇率来突出放宽地理资金限制的有希望的机会。