An Analytical Framework for Conservation Design at Landscape‐Scales (Landscape Conservation Design) (original) (raw)
Related papers
Wildlife Society Bulletin, 2016
Landscape design is a conservation planning process, described in the landscape ecology literature, proposed to rectify the knowledge and implementation gap in planning that have limited the effectiveness of many conservation planning efforts. Use of landscape design bridges this gap through increased emphasis on the interdisciplinary nature of conservation planning and engagement of a stakeholder advisory team to create a conservation plan that resonates with biological, cultural, social, and economic realities of the area concerned. We define landscape design as a conservation planning process that integrates societal goals and values with established biological conservation goals, using science grounded in landscape ecology to describe future scenarios where specific and measurable biological goals can be attained. First, we describe a landscape design process and provide examples from the literature and partnerships such as Connect the Connecticut and the Appalachian Landscape Conservation Cooperative. We follow by discussing a case study of a landscape design effort to conserve playa wetlands to support waterfowl goals for migrating waterfowl established in the North American Waterfowl Management Plan. We further highlight characteristics of a successfully completed landscape design. We conclude that landscape design is a powerful process that goes beyond identifying high-priority conservation assets and intended to be an action-oriented process. Landscape design provides a framework for ensuring that conservation planning does not occur in a vacuum by ensuring social, cultural, and economic needs of people are recognized before valuable conservation dollars are expended. It provides a mechanism for understanding the effects of future landscape drivers on natural resources and engages stakeholders in proactive discussions regarding conservation. The final result is a commitment by a partnership to a set of actions that will achieve the stated conservation goal.
To protect ecological systems in a changing climate, conservation activities at the landscape-scale must be coordinated across multiple jurisdictions and sectors. This is a fundamental shift from a traditional "stove-piped" approach to an innovative, integrated design approach that defines conservation's future. Landscape conservation design (LCD) is a stakeholder-driven process that integrates societal values and interests with the best-available science to protect biodiversity and ecosystem services, and increase resilience and sustainability. LCD can be especially useful in addressing long-term stressors such as climate change.
The iCASS Platform: Nine principles for landscape conservation design
Abstract: The Anthropocene presents society with a super wicked problem comprised of multiple contingent and conflicting issues driven by a complex array of change agents. Super wicked problems cannot be adequately addressed using siloed decision-making approaches developed by hierarchical institutions using science that is compartmentalized by discipline. Adaptive solutions will rest on human ingenuity that fosters transformation towards sustainability. To successfully achieve these objectives, conservation and natural resource practitioners need a paradigm that transcends single-institution interests and decision-making processes. We propose a platform for an emerging and evolutionary step change in sustainability planning: landscape conservation design (LCD). We use existing governance and adaptation planning principles to develop an iterative, flexible innovation systems framework—the " iCASS Platform. " It consists of nine principles and five attributes—innova-tion, convening stakeholders, assessing current and plausible future landscape conditions, spatial design, and strategy design. The principles are organized around four cornerstones of innovation: people, purpose, process, and product. The iCASS Platform can facilitate LCD via processes that aim to create and empower social networks , foster stakeholder involvement, engender co-production and cross-pollination of knowledge, and provide multiple opportunities for deliberation, transparency, and collaborative decision-making. Our intention is to pivot from single-institution, siloed assessment and planning to stakeholder-driven, participatory design, leading to collaborative decision-making and extensive landscape conservation.
A National Geographic Framework for Guiding Conservation on a Landscape Scale
Journal of Fish and Wildlife Management, 2012
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, along with the global conservation community, has recognized that the conservation challenges of the 21st century far exceed the responsibilities and footprint of any individual agency or program. The ecological effects of climate change and other anthropogenic stressors do not recognize geopolitical boundaries and, as such, demand a national geographic framework to provide structure for cross-jurisdictional and landscape-scale conservation strategies. In 2009, a new map of ecologically based conservation regions in which to organize capacity and implement strategic habitat conservation was developed using rapid prototyping and expert elicitation by an interagency team of U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and U.S. Geological Survey scientists and conservation professionals. Incorporating Bird Conservation Regions, Freshwater Ecoregions, and U.S. Geological Survey hydrologic unit codes, the new geographic framework provides a spatial template for building conservation capacity and focusing biological planning and conservation design efforts. The Department of Interior's Landscape Conservation Cooperatives are being organized in these new conservation regions as multi-stakeholder collaborations for improved conservation science and management.
Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, 2009
ar ra ah h T Ta ay yl lo or r L Lo ov ve el ll l 1 1* * a an nd d D Do ou ug gl la as s M M J Jo oh hn ns st to on n 2 2 The opportunity exists to improve intensively managed landscapes (urban and agricultural areas dominated by human activities) through greater engagement of ecologists in the process of ecological landscape design. This approach encourages exploration of multifunctional solutions to meet the needs of growing populations in many areas around the world, while minimizing the negative impacts of human activities on the environment. This is achieved by incorporating theoretical and applied principles from the fields of landscape ecology, agroecology, and ecological design. Multifunctional landscapes can be designed to provide a range of environmental, social, and economic functions, while considering the interests of landowners and users. Here, we propose a process for designing multifunctional landscapes, guided by ecological principles in the following steps: (1) defining the project site and landscape context, (2) analyzing landscape structure and function, (3) master planning using an ecosystem approach, (4) designing sites to highlight ecological functions, and (5) monitoring ecological functions. The development of a framework for ecological design of landscapes demonstrates the importance of a multi-scale approach for connecting sites to their surroundings, the benefits of a multifunctional design for sustainability, and the value of involving ecologists throughout the entire design process. The ecological design approach is explored for the University of Illinois Field Research Station.
Current landscape ecology reports, 2018
Enhancing natural resource management has been a focus of landscape ecology since its inception, but numerous authors argue that landscape ecology has not yet been effective in achieving the underlying goal of planning and designing sustainable landscapes. We developed nine questions reflecting the application of fundamental research topics in landscape ecology to the landscape planning process and reviewed two recent landscape-scale plans in western North America for evidence of these concepts in plan decisions. Both plans considered multiple resources, uses, and values, including energy development, recreation, conservation, and protection of cultural and historic resources. We found that land use change and multiscale perspectives of resource uses and values were very often apparent in planning decisions. Pattern-process relationships, connectivity and fragmentation, ecosystem services, landscape history, and climate change were reflected less frequently. Landscape sustainability was considered only once in the 295 decisions reviewed, and outputs of landscape models were not referenced. We suggest six actionable opportunities for further integrating landscape ecology concepts into landscape planning efforts: 1) use landscape sustainability as an overarching goal, 2) adopt a broad ecosystem services framework, 3) explore the role of landscape history more comprehensively, 4) regularly consider and accommodate potential effects of climate change, 5) use landscape models to support plan decisions, and 6) promote a greater presence of landscape ecologists within agencies that manage large land bases and encourage active involvement in agency planning efforts. Together these actions may improve the defensibility, durability, and sustainability of landscape plan decisions.
Achieving effective landscape conservation: Evolving demands, adaptive metrics
To address the conservation of landscapes, one must first define success in terms that are measurable and relevant to impacts and results rather than simply accounting for participants. Effective conservation requires development of conservation goals that are place-appropriate. Definitions of success will necessarily depend upon location and community, but those definitions are linked to larger and nonlocal issues over a range of space and time. Knowing when, where, and under what circumstances conservation efforts are having the desired impacts is critical. Moreover, implementing goals on a landscape scale requires addressing the increasingly dynamic land use changes occurring on and off farms.
Conservation Design: Where Do We Go from Here?
pwrc.usgs.gov
Conservation design entails 1) characterization and assessment of a landscape's capacity to support wildlife, 2) predictive modeling and mapping of species population response to this landscape, 3) assessment of conservation opportunities given those predicted patterns in occurrence and abundance, 4) strategic enhancement of landscapes to achieve conservation goals, and then 5) subsequent monitoring and evaluation to ensure that the conservation actions that follow from this process truly lead to gains for wildlife and wildlands. Conservation design should recognize the dynamical nature of populations and the landscapes they inhabit. It should also balance needs of individual priority species against those of species aggregates. Ideally, aspects of this process should generate recommendations for management which recognize future trends in landscape conditions. Each of these endeavors is infl uenced by issues associated with scale: temporal, spatial, and thematic. The future of conservation design will likely include shifts from static, pattern-based models of specieshabitat response to dynamical projections of process-based models, with commensurate recognition of the uncertainty that accompanies those projections.