There are many resources available to assist new users acquire the basic skills and understanding to use Marxan:
Marxan should be used as part of a systematic conservation planning process (see Box 1). Actually running Marxan to generate conservation solutions will generally be the quick part of the conservation planning exercise. When used as part of a systematic conservation plan, Marxan can contribute towards a transparent, inclusive and defensible decision making process.
Remember that Marxan is a decision support tool to help guide the selection of conservation networks; its output should never be interpreted as ‘the answer’. In most cases there will be many good solutions to the problem at hand – a positive attribute as it provides flexibility in planning and stakeholder negotiations.