A guide to navigating the complexities of quantitative trade-off analysis

Trade-offs are fundamental in natural resource management, being either implicit or explicit in every decision relating to human activity undertaken. Managing for sustainable use of resources typically involves the need to account for three interconnected dimensions: the state of ecosystems, economic productivity, and social infrastructure. Alternative management strategies often result in different combinations of outcomes in each of these three dimensions and hence are likely to involve trade-offs which must be evaluated to determine the most appropriate overall strategy from a broad societal perspective. If the different dimensions are considered separately, or if certain dimensions are neglected in assessing the outcomes of different courses of action, there is a risk that at least some of the sustainable development objectives may not be achieved. Conceptual frameworks have been developed to address the integrated evaluation of ecological, economic, and social/cultural aspects of ecosystem-based management, and a diverse set of quantitative methods have been proposed to support their implementation, across a range of disciplinary fields. The aim of this paper is to propose a decision map to help researchers and decision-makers choose appropriate methods according to the context of the assessment. We identify the different methods that can be used, starting from standard cost-benefit analysis, and expanding to alternative approaches, and provide illustrations of how the methods can be implemented, highlighting their advantages and limitations.