Optimizing Funding Strategies for Endangered Plant Conservation in Florida

2020 B Problem Statement

Problem: Funding Biodiversity Conservation

Background: Thousands of plant and animal species face extinction threats, yet biodiversity‑conservation actions that could save them are often available. Conservation managers must decide which projects to fund to achieve objectives such as saving the most species, especially when benefits, costs, and available funding vary across projects and are insufficient to support all proposals.

Project timelines and life cycles differ widely; some span years or decades, and cost schedules depend on scope, location, target species, and responsible agency. Consequently, budgets must cover the entire project lifetime, and managers need to monitor and allocate funds efficiently as demand fluctuates over time.

Objective: Determine how to efficiently invest in biodiversity‑conservation activities for endangered and threatened species that occur over long time frames and whose expected costs change over that time.

HiMCM Case: Prioritize Action and Funding for Plant Conservation in Florida (USA)

Florida is a hotspot for plant biodiversity, with 20% of its species imperiled. Only about 2% (~64 species) receive protection under the US Endangered Species Act, and current funding is inadequate. The Florida Rare Plant Conservation Endowment (FRPCE) is a trust fund that aims to provide both up‑front and long‑term financing for research, protection, and conservation of rare Florida plants, beyond what traditional fundraising can achieve.

Requirements:

Develop a model to advise the FRPCE Board of the minimum fundraising required for reliable long‑term funding, focusing on the 48 imperiled species in the provided dataset (Attachment B). Each row represents a recovery project for a species.

a. Identify and discuss relevant objectives the FRPCE Board should consider and propose measures to evaluate the "best" fundraising plan.

b. List and address general characteristics of imperiled plant species and indicate the factors to be used in the decision model.

c. Develop a model or algorithm (or set of models) for the FRPCE Board to determine a fundraising schedule (amounts over time) that minimizes required funds while still providing necessary resources for the 48 recovery projects.

2. Apply the model to recommend a priority order of funding that balances available funds with spending requirements over time, and discuss the recommendation.

3. Write a one‑page non‑technical memo to the FRPCE Board explaining the results and recommendations.

Your PDF solution (max 25 pages) should include:

One‑page Summary Sheet

Table of Contents

Complete solution

One‑page Memo

References list

Note: All components count toward the 25‑page limit.

Attachments:

Attachment A: A Conservation Endowment For Imperiled Plants In Florida Attachment B: HiMCM2020ProblemB_ThreatenedPlantsData.xlsx

Data Fields:

unique_id: the unique plant identifier for that species. Benefit: a measure indicating the expected relative conservation value of funding one species over another, considering how threatened the species is and how easy conservation actions are. Taxonomic Uniqueness: a measure of species uniqueness; larger numbers indicate greater uniqueness. Feasibility of Success: the probability that the species will be protected from extinction if all actions receive funding. Year "n" cost: the estimated recovery cost in US dollars for the species in the nth year of the project (n = 1, 2, …, 25).

Glossary:

Biodiversity: the variety of plants, animals, and other species in a habitat at a given time. Biodiversity Conservation: the practice of protecting and preserving species, habitats, ecosystems, and genetic diversity. Imperiled Species: species whose populations have declined dramatically and are at risk of extinction. Traditional Fundraising: regular fundraising campaigns that request donations to reach a specific monetary goal.

Problem Formulation and Analysis

2.1 Problem Statement

The 2020 B problem is more academic than problem A, focusing on designing an optimal protection plan for endangered plants. It received support from researchers in Arizona and Florida.

COMAP thanks researchers from Arizona and Florida for their assistance in developing this project. Upon completion of HiMCM, COMAP will recognize these researchers and their institutions on the HiMCM webpage and in our spring Consortium publication.

Although many students may be unfamiliar with endangered‑plant conservation plans, the topic has significant social relevance and existing research.

From the background information we can extract three key points:

Conservation plans often have limited funding.

Decision‑makers must set clear objectives to prioritize projects.

Implementation is affected by funding, time span, and species characteristics.

How can we devise the optimal protection plan under limited funding?

2.2 Problem Analysis

2.2.1 Information Provided by the Problem

The 2020 B problem supplies abundant information, including objectives, constraints, modeling directions, and a dataset (Attachment B) that eliminates the need for external data collection.

Restated tasks:

Using the dataset, (a) define conservation objectives, (b) list general characteristics of imperiled species, (c) build a model/algorithm to minimize total fundraising over the entire protection horizon.

Apply the model to determine a priority funding order that balances cash flow over time.

Write a one‑page non‑technical memo to the FRPCE Board with results and recommendations.

Solution steps:

Identify optimization goals and influencing factors, and combine them into an objective function.

Build a model to decide when to fund which projects (start time is the primary decision variable).

Use the model on the dataset to obtain a concrete schedule.

Prepare the memo and write the report.

The dataset contains 48 samples with 29 features; each sample includes ID, Benefit, Taxonomic Uniqueness, Feasibility of Success, and yearly cost up to 25 years.

Each sample provides the following fields (as reiterated in the blockquote above).

For students unfamiliar with the field, literature searches using keywords such as "efficiently invest in biodiversity conservation activities for endangered and threatened species" can provide additional insights and modeling ideas, including concepts like maximizing return on investment and evaluating the efficiency of conservation spending.

Reviewing 10‑20 relevant papers will broaden the research perspective before constructing a tailored model for this dataset.

Existing academic work has addressed similar questions (objectives, characteristics, and planning models), but none target this specific dataset, offering an opportunity to build a customized solution.

Reference:

https://www.comap.com/highschool/contests/himcm/2020_HiMCM_Problem_B.pdf