We will discuss The Nature Conservancy's approach to conservation planning. This approach is very mission-driven, so you should should aware of the Conservancy's mission.
This mission serves as the impetus for the broad-scale goal of the conservancy, as described in Conservation by Design: The Nature Conservancy’s conservation goal is the long-term survival of all viable native species and community types through the design and conservation of portfolios of sites within ecoregions.
To achieve this goal, The Nature Conservancy uses ecoregions as primary planning units. Within ecoregions, a portfolio of sites is identified:
Thus, the approach relies on four distinct steps:
In ecoregional planning:
After these "action" sites are identified, TNC conducts site conservation
planning for each site:
Conservation action may include:
Groves, C.R. 2003. Drafting a Conservation Blueprint: A Practitioner's Guide to Planning for Biodiversity. Island Press, Washington, D.C.
Groves, C., Valutis, L., Vosick, D., Neely, B., Wheaton, K., Touval, J., and Runnels, B. 2000. Designing a Geography of Hope: a Practitioner's Guide for Ecoregional Conservation Planning. The Nature Conservancy, Arlington, Virginia.
Meffe, G.K., Carroll, C.R., and contributors. 1997. Principles of Conservation Biology, second edition. Sinauer Associates, Sunderland, Massachusetts.