Decision support tools in Tasmania’s private protected area estate

The Tasmanian Land Conservancy (TLC) case study examines how a science-led conservation organisation has developed and implemented decision support tools to guide strategic conservation action across Tasmania. As one of Tasmania's largest private landowners managing over 100,000 hectares, TLC employs three conservation approaches: establishing TLC reserves through direct purchase, operating a revolving fund to protect and resell properties with conservation covenants, and working with private landholders through partnership programmes.

The case study focuses on TLC's evolution from the World Class Reserve System to the more responsive Conservation Prioritisation System (CPS), built around the systematic conservation planning tool Marxan. This evolution reflects the organisation's commitment to adaptive management and evidence-based decision making, while addressing the practical challenge of bridging regional conservation priorities with local-scale opportunities for property acquisition and management.

The case study demonstrates how decision support tools must be embedded within broader organisational capacity to achieve effective conservation outcomes across diverse landscapes and property types. We explore the role of decision support tools for the case of TLC in identifying statewide conservation priorities and strategically considering the best ways to conserve these areas either as TLC reserves or in partnership with others.

Several recurring themes are central to the Case Study:

1. Science-led decision making - TLC's identity as a "science led organisation" and the evolution from World Class Reserve System to more responsive tools

2. Adaptive and responsive systems - The need for decision support tools that can be "responsive to new information and management needs" and updated regularly

3. Bridging strategy and opportunity - The challenge of connecting regional strategic priorities with local opportunistic action ("plan of the day" concept)

4. Organisational capacity and learning - Investment in staff training, building team capacity, and being a "learning organisation"

5. Pragmatic implementation - Balancing what investments are "reasonable and feasible" and interfacing "opportunism with strategic action"

The Tasmanian Land Conservancy's adoption of decision support tools to guide strategic conservation planning across Tasmania's diverse landscapes. TLC, as a science-led organisation, needed systematic approaches to identify statewide conservation priorities and make strategic decisions about where and how to conserve areas—whether as TLC reserves or in partnership with others.

Decision support tools are just that - support for decision makers. They are particularly important for spatial planning and implementation where organisations (government or private NGOs) must have a strategic view of regional priorities in the landscape but act at local scales through the purchase of individual properties and manage conservation values within portions of those properties.

In this case study we use the Tasmanian Land Conservancy's adoption of decision support tools over many years and iterations to guide their strategic thinking about where priorities lie and for what actions. We consider the pragmatism of what investments in decision support are reasonable and feasible, what value teams can derive from these tools, and how to interface opportunism with strategic action.

TLC is a science and community-based not for profit that raises funds from the public to protect irreplaceable sites and rare ecosystems by buying and managing private land in Tasmania. TLC began in 2001 from humble beginnings and has grown to become one of Tasmania’s largest private landowners, working in nature conservation projects across more than 100,000 hectares of land in Tasmania.

Decision support tools must be fit for purpose, in terms of the context they are deployed into, the decisions they are supporting, and level of responsiveness to changes in these. This requires a willingness to invest in being a learning organisation or science-led organisation. 

Investments might be financial, to develop and support a new tool, or time investments, in terms of staff having the time to train and use the tools, or broader human capital to ensure that the teams involved in decision making are able to interpret and use the tool regularly.  

The choice of decision support tool and how it is built into decision making should be guided by implementation plans such that decisions translate into action. Consider the readings 'The plan of the day' and 'Implementation strategies' to reflect on these elements of choosing the right tools for the problem.

Organisations working in conservation must have a strategic view of regional priorities in the landscape but act at local scales through individual property purchases and management. The challenge involves:

• Balancing strategic regional planning with opportunistic local action

• Ensuring decision support tools are fit for purpose and responsive to changing information

• Building organisational capacity to interpret and use complex planning tools

• Interfacing systematic conservation planning with practical implementation

TLC supports conservation on land in three ways:

1. TLC Reserves – TLC purchases and protects (through covenants) private reserves and manages them into perpetuity. TLC's reserves cover remote mountain tops to coastal environments, woodlands, wetlands and grasslands. Their network of reserves protect some of the most important natural areas in Tasmania. They conserve critical habitat for Tasmania's rare and threatened species and serve as safe havens for the future.

2. Revolving Fund – TLC can't do it all - it's a not for profit and must be strategic in what land it retains in the TLC reserve system and what land it protects and shares with others to look after. TLC purchases, protects (through the establishment of a conservation covenant) and re-sells land to new owners keen to support conservation by use of the revolving fund.

3. Working with landholders – There are many private landholders looking after nature in different ways. TLC works alongside committed landholders across Tasmania to identify, protect and manage important areas on their own properties through a variety of programs including the Midlands Conservation Partnership, NRM Partnerships, Land for Wildlife, Gardens for Wildlife, and WildTracker. 

Conservation Prioritisation System cycle (based on Boothroyd 2025)

Eastern quoll (Dasyurus viverrinus) fawn morph, Upper Esk Valley, Dorset, TAS, Australia (Sharp Photography https://commons.wikimedia.org/)

Adams V, Mills M, Weeks R, Segan D, Pressey R, Gurney G, Groves C, Davis F, Álvarez-Romero J. (2018). Implementation strategies for systematic conservation planning. AMBIO A Journal of the Human Environment 48(2). DOI: 10.1007/s13280-018-1067-2

Systematic conservation planning has provided many elegant spatial plans but has it translated into on ground action? Vanessa and others use case studies to understand what the elements of success are for bridging plans and action and discuss the need for implementation strategies alongside conservation plans. Decision support tools are a critical element in a conservation plan and associated implementation strategies.

Boothroyd A, Adams V, Dickson C.R, & Álvarez-Romero J.G. (2025) Tasmanian Land Conservancy’s Conservation Prioritisation System Guidebook. Tasmanian Land Conservancy, Hobart TAS, Australia.

Organisations make frequent (if not continuous) decisions about where and how to act. To ensure plans are updated and responsive to this decision support systems must be designed to be embedded into adaptive planning and management. This is what the CPS, built around Marxan, aims to achieve for the TLC. Read the manual here to consider how TLC has defined their conservation problem and used Marxan to guide their actions.

Pressey R, Mills M, Weeks R,  Day J. (2013). The plan of the day: Managing the dynamic transition from regional conservation designs to local conservation actions. Biological Conservation 166:155-169, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2013.06.025

Systematic conservation planning provides a regional understand of spatial priorities for conservation. But action must inherently be local and responsive to opportunity. How do practitioners bridge the gap from plan to action? Pressey and others discuss the need for the plan of the day and what the means for bringing together strategy and opportunity. Decision support tools are at the heart of this.