During this step, the stresses should be ranked in terms of their severity and scope. Severity is the level of damage to the conservation target that would result from the stress during the planning timeframe. Scope is the geographic extent of the damage to the target that the stress would be expected to cause at the site. Each of these factors is ranked qualitatively as very high, high, medium, or low. The two factors are combined to derive a single rank for each stress in relation to each target.

It would not be practical to develop strategies for abating all stresses affecting the focal targets on AAFB. A more reasonable approach is to review and prioritize the sources, many of which are common to multiple stresses and targets. The Site Conservation Planning software application developed by TNC performs this analysis and produces a ranking of active threats (i.e., active sources of stress) for focal targets (Table 6.3). This permits managers to determine how each active threat affects focal conservation targets and to begin developing strategies for abating primary threats to biodiversity on AAFB.

Proceed to Next Section: Strategies for Threat Abatement