Ecological Modelling, 70 (1993) 63-87 63 Elsevier Science Publishers B.V., Amsterdam ECOLECON" An ECOLogical-ECONomic model for species conservation in complex forest landscapes Jianguo Liu Institute of Ecology, Unicersity of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602, USA (Received 3 July 1992; accepted 3 December 1992) ABSTRACT Liu, J., 1993. ECOLECON: An ECOLogical-ECONomic model for species conservation in complex forest landscapes. Ecol. Modelling, 70: 63-87. An ECOLogical-ECONomic model (ECOLECON) has been developed to simulate animal population dynamics and economic revenues in response to different forest land- scape structure and timber management scenarios. ECOLECON is a spatially-explicit, individual-based, and object-oriented program. It is coded in Borland C + + 2.0 and contains 14 classes or subclasses of ecological and economic information which are hierar- chically interlinked. ECOLECON can generate artificial forest landscapes or can link with geographic information systems (GIS) to run simulations on real landscapes. The model predicts population dynamics, spatial distribution, extinction probability of a species under consideration as well as future landscape structure, and economic income from timber harvest based on current tax and timber market situation. The model outputs provide valuable information for balancing the conflicts between the generation of economic revenues and the conservation of endangered species. Because ECOLECON is interactive and easy to use, it is a useful tool for both research and education. This paper introduces the methods of model development, presents the model structure, demonstrates a sample simulation using the model, and discusses the validation and utilities of the model as well as means to expand the model in the future. 1. INTRODUCTION Conservation of endangered and threatened species has recently become a high priority for many scientists, politicians and ordinary citizens through- out the world (Council on Environmental Quality and U.S. Department of State, 1980; Soul6, 1986; Office of Technology Assessment, 1987; Shaffer and Saterson, 1987; World Commission on Environment and Development, Correspondence to (present address): J. Liu, Harvard Institute for International Develop- ment, Harvard University, 1 Eliot Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA. 0304-3800/93/$06.00 © 1993 - Elsevier Science Publishers B.V. All rights reserved