Abstract Policy guidelines for creating new protected areas commonly recommend larger protected areas be favored. We examine whether these recommendations are justified, providing the first evaluation of this question to use return-on-investment (ROI) methods that account for how protected area size influences multiple ecological benefits and the economic costs of protection. We examine areas acquired to protect forested ecosystems in the eastern US that are rich in endemic species. ROI analyses often alter recommendations about protected area size from those obtained when considering only ecological benefits or only economic costs. Large protected areas offer a greater ecological return per dollar invested if the goal of protecting sites is to reduce forest fragmentation on the wider landscape, whereas smaller sites offer a higher ROI when prioritizing sites offering protection to more species. A portfolio of site sizes may need to be included in protected area networks when multiple objectives motivate conservation.

中文翻译：

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保护是正确的吗？保护区规模和保护投资回报

摘要 创建新保护区的政策指南通常建议支持更大的保护区。我们检查这些建议是否合理，首先使用投资回报 (ROI) 方法对这个问题进行评估，该方法说明保护区大小如何影响多种生态效益和保护的经济成本。我们研究了为保护美国东部拥有丰富特有物种的森林生态系统而获得的区域。ROI 分析通常会改变有关保护区大小的建议，而不是仅考虑生态效益或经济成本时获得的建议。如果保护地点的目标是减少更广泛景观上的森林破碎化，则大型保护区每投入一美元就能提供更大的生态回报，而较小的站点在优先考虑为更多物种提供保护的站点时提供更高的投资回报率。当多个目标促进保护时，保护区网络中可能需要包含一系列站点规模。