Abstract Conservation efforts often focus on umbrella species whose distributions overlap with many other flora and fauna. However, because biodiversity is affected by different threats that are spatially variable, focusing only on the geographic range overlap of species may not be sufficient in allocating the necessary actions needed to efficiently abate threats. We developed a problem‐based method for prioritizing conservation actions for umbrella species that maximizes the total number of flora and fauna benefiting from management while considering threats, actions, and costs. We tested our new method by assessing the performance of the Australian federal government's umbrella prioritization list, which identifies 73 umbrella species as priorities for conservation attention. Our results show that the federal government priority list benefits only 6% of all Australia's threatened terrestrial species. This could be increased to benefit nearly half (or 46%) of all threatened terrestrial species for the same budget of AU$550 million/year if more suitable umbrella species were chosen. This results in a 7‐fold increase in management efficiency. We believe nations around the world can markedly improve the selection of prioritized umbrella species for conservation action with this transparent, quantitative, and objective prioritization approach.

中文翻译：

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使用替代物种以具有成本效益的方式优先考虑保护行动

摘要 保护工作通常侧重于分布与许多其他动植物群重叠的伞形物种。然而，由于生物多样性受到空间可变的不同威胁的影响，仅关注物种的地理范围重叠可能不足以分配有效减少威胁所需的必要行动。我们开发了一种基于问题的方法，用于优先考虑保护伞物种的保护行动，在考虑威胁、行动和成本的同时，最大限度地提高从管理中受益的动植物总数。我们通过评估澳大利亚联邦政府保护伞优先列表的表现来测试我们的新方法，该列表确定了 73 种保护伞物种作为保护关注的优先事项。我们的结果表明，联邦政府的优先清单仅使澳大利亚所有受威胁陆生物种的 6% 受益。如果选择更合适的保护伞物种，在 5.5 亿澳元/年的相同预算下，这可以增加，使近一半（或 46%）的受威胁陆地物种受益。这使管理效率提高了 7 倍。我们相信，通过这种透明、定量和客观的优先排序方法，世界各国可以显着改善优先保护伞物种的选择。这使管理效率提高了 7 倍。我们相信，通过这种透明、定量和客观的优先排序方法，世界各国可以显着改善优先保护伞物种的选择。这使管理效率提高了 7 倍。我们相信，通过这种透明、定量和客观的优先排序方法，世界各国可以显着改善优先保护伞物种的选择。