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Conservation planning

Today's powerpoint file

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:

these sites represent the area necessary to maintain conservation targets over time (targets are species, ecosystems, and the processes that sustain them)

Thus, the approach relies on four distinct steps:

  • Ecoregional planning


  • Site conservation planning


  • Conservation action


  • Measuring success


    In ecoregional planning:

  • Conservation targets are identified



  • Conservation goals are determined



  • Viability of targets is assessed



  • Which leads to a portfolio of sites that "capture" the targets



  • And therefore identification of sites where TNC will focus their efforts



    After these "action" sites are identified, TNC conducts site conservation planning for each site:

  • systems



  • stresses



  • sources



  • strategies



  • success measures



    Conservation action may include:

  • acquisition



  • adaptive management



  • influencing public policies



  • compatible development



  • community-based conservation



    Additional Information (also see assigned readings):

    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.