The costs and benefits of publicising species discoveries

Abstract

Information about species’ locations can influence what happens to them—from supporting habitat protection to exposing poaching targets. Debate about releasing locations when new species are found highlights the trade-off between the risk of loss and the benefits of funding and public support. No research so far has collected data on how such decisions are made, and no decision tools easily compare a range of decision-making scenarios. Here, we present a method to compare the costs and benefits of decisions about the disclosure of information about newly discovered species and populations. We implement our method for seven species where information is completely or partially secret. We ask decision-makers to estimate the costs and benefits associated with these case studies and apply our method. Results show a range of implications from choices that are always better, to others that depend on risk attitude, and demonstrate that the process of decision-making can be transparent and easily communicated.