Marxan User Manual: Preface

Scope and Aims
This manual is intended to equip readers with the basic knowledge required to use Marxan. We cover all the relevant parameters and necessary data inputs, as well as the steps required to successfully execute the program and interpret the results. We focus on the practicalities of using Marxan rather then the theory of reserve system design and the optimization algorithms that solve the reserve system design problem. Some of this information is available in the appendices, but in other cases we attempt to direct readers to the appropriate source. We provide some guidance to the sorts of problems Marxan can solve but in reality only your imagination limits the way it can be applied. It is important, however, to understand how Marxan works in order to avoid solving the wrong problem or misinterpreting the solutions you find. Marxan can be a very powerful tool, but if misused it can undermine a great deal of hard work in collecting and collating good data, not to mention providing misleading advice and undermining the credibility of systematic conservation planning software.

Complementary literature
Where this manual seems light on detail or lacking in specific direction, additional information can almost certainly be found in the Marxan Good Practices Handbook (MGPH), which is expected to be available for download in 2008. This manual and the MGPH should be used in concert with each other, and together should provide the resources needed to undertake highly skilled and defensible analysis using Marxan. In addition, we strongly suggest reading some of the many peer reviewed articles that use Marxan in various conservation applications. These articles demonstrate what types of questions Marxan is able to answer, how conservation problems are set up, the kinds of data that can be used, and how different objectives and constraints influence the resulting reserve solutions. We provide details for some of these publications in the Key References section.

Acknowledgements
Preparation of this version of the Marxan manual has been as much a compilation exercise as a writing exercise and as a result we owe a great deal of thanks to a large number of people.

First and foremost, a huge amount of credit must be given to Ian Ball and Hugh Possingham, the original developers of Marxan and authors of the previous manual. It is through their manual that both of us, and many others, have learned to use Marxan. Much of their original manual has been incorporated into this version, especially in the technical appendix.

We also wish to acknowledge the significant contribution of Jeff Ardron. Not only did Jeff provide valuable technical and editorial advice, but without his enthusiasm and belief in good conservation practices, neither this manual nor the good practices handbook would have become a reality. We would also like to thank Carissa Klein and Matt Watts for their excellent technical and editorial advice throughout the process. Appendix C was largely based on the Marxan 101 course run by the University of Queensland, written by Carissa Klein, Dave Nicolson and Matthew Watts. Details of this and other courses can be found at: http://www.ecology.uq.edu.au/marxan.htm.

Some of the introductory paragraphs have been modified from chapter 1 of the MGPH and for this we thank Hugh Possingham, Jennifer Smith, Krista Royle, Dan Dorfman and Tara Martin.

Lindsay Kircher and Dan Segan, as new users to Marxan, gave insightful and helpful comments on an early draft of this manual and its tutorials. And finally thanks go to the funders of this work, the Packard Foundation’s Marine Ecosystem-Based? Management Tool Innovation Fund, and to the Pacific Marine Analysis and Research Association (PacMARA) for submitting the funding proposal.

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