We study the optimal conservation effort to prevent a population in a fluctuating environment from going extinct, and the optimal sampling effort to reduce the uncertainty with respect to the population size.
[1] We first analyze the optimal conservation effort when the current population size is known accurately.
[2] Next we consider the situation where the knowledge (cue) on population size is not accurate.
[3] We subsequently consider situations where the cue accuracy can be improved by sampling of the population.
We discuss the implication of these mathematical results in conservation practice.