This growing recognition that connecting protected areas is key to stemming biodiversity loss has been fueled in large part by dedicated professionals collaborating in the Connectivity Conservation Specialist Group (CCSG). The CCSG was established in 2016 under the IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas (WCPA) CCSG’s mission to serve as the global hub providing scientific, policy, and technical advice that mainstreams connectivity conservation as a nature-based solution to enhance the integrity of protected areas, save biodiversity, and increase resilience to climate change across all lands and waters.

While international in scope, composed of 1200+ volunteer members from 125+ countries, much of the CCSG’s day-to-day coordination is conducted from the offices of the Center for Large Landscape Conservation (CLLC) based in Bozeman and Missoula, Montana, in the United States.

CLLC has served this role as the “Secretariat” of CCSG since its inception, acting as the group’s central administration and providing crucial coordination, communication, and logistical support to the growing network of volunteer connectivity conservation experts around the world. Staff members also play leading roles in the Specialist Group and its working groups.

Connectivity Conservation Leadership

Center for Large Landscape Conservation founder and CEO Gary Tabor was the CCSG’s first Chair and has served for the last eight years with Deputy Chair Jodi Hilty, President and Chief Scientist at the Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative. Both Tabor and Hilty recently reached the leadership term limit allowed by WCPA and are passing the torch to three new Co-chairs.

“I am proud to have inspired and supported the ambitions of this wonderful, growing community,” Tabor said in a message to the CCSG membership.  “And now, as I leave and take on the new sage role of Senior Advisor, I congratulate you all on our numerous achievements and look forward to seeing our new cohort of leaders continue to build upon them.”

WCPA Chair Madhu Rao has selected three new co-chairs: Aaron Laur from the Center for Large Landscape Conservation in Bozeman, Montana, USA; Jordan Reeves from the Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative, also in Bozeman; and Zhicong Zhao from the Institute for National Parks at Tsinghua University, Beijing, China.

CLLC’s Laur assumes the role of Co-chair after nearly 20 years of experience in international conservation that has always had a focus on contributing to and advancing the mission of IUCN.

When asked about his hopes for the future as he steps into the role of Co-chair, Laur said, “I look forward to working with fellow Co-Chairs to build on the outstanding example set by IUCN’s and CCSG’s pioneering leadership fostering innovation, collaboration, and a dedicated community that has inspired a fully-fledged worldwide movement for connectivity conservation. Together, CCSG will seize the momentum it has generated in science, policy, and practice to support each other and partners around the world to more efficiently and effectively conserve nature at large, connected scales.”  

The Co-chairs will now lead CCSG into its next, exciting chapter. They will govern the group membership, guide its strategic direction, foster inclusivity and collaboration, and continue supporting the development of knowledge products, tools, and policy advice. Leadership will also include representing the Specialist Group across IUCN and coordinating members for local to global gatherings, including the World Conservation Congress.

CCSG’s Global Impact

CCSG is one of IUCN WCPA’s most active Specialist Groups. Thanks to its dedicated members, connectivity conservation has moved from an outlier to the mainstream of conservation. Among many collaborative activities, its efforts are the basis for Canada’s National Program for Ecological Corridors, Asian Elephant range states prioritizing connectivity and wildlife-friendly linear infrastructure, and establishment of the Global Partnership on Ecological Connectivity.

Furthermore, thanks to the leadership of this group, connectivity is now embedded in several global conservation agreements, including the Convention on Biological Diversity’s Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (KMGBF) for 2030 and beyond.

Developing Conservation Tools and Guidance

CCSG Members have produced dozens of peer-reviewed papers, technical reports, and guidance documents to help inform and guide connectivity conservation worldwide. Among the largest collaborative efforts are IUCN’s groundbreaking Guidelines for conserving connectivity through ecological networks and corridors and Technical Report Addressing ecological connectivity in the development of roads, railways and canals.

Behind the scenes, CLLC staff members Laur and Gabriel Oppler have shepherded many of these publications from concept through completion by editing, facilitating reviews, overseeing photos and layout, and navigating all official manuscripts through the IUCN approval processes.

Key to making the work of the CCSG available to all, its website features ongoing projects and activities along with a sizable resource library and digests synthesizing the latest news, science, and policy surrounding connectivity conservation.

What’s ahead for CCSG

Recent adoption of IUCN Resolution WCC-2025-Res-126, Recognising and Reporting Ecological Corridors, provides a strong mandate for CCSG and its working groups to lead coordination and collaboration over the next four years. Priorities will include advocating for an authoritative international definition and frameworks to delineate and manage ecological corridors; applying the IUCN Connectivity Guidelines globally to strengthen consistent corridor design, governance, monitoring, and implementation; launching the World Database on Ecological Corridors to improve tracking and reporting; and encouraging sustained funding and investment for long-term corridor conservation.

CCSG will also continue implementing IUCN Resolution WCC 2020 Res 071, Wildlife-friendly linear infrastructure, to address fragmentation caused by transport infrastructure through cross-sector collaboration. In parallel, the group will contribute to preparations for CMS CoP-15 (2026 in Brazil), CBD CoP-17 (2026 in Armenia), and the World Protected and Conserved Areas Congress (2027 in Panama).

Top photo: CCSG Outgoing Deputy Chair Jodi Hilty (far left) and Outgoing Chair Gary Tabor (second from right) with the team from CLLC in Romania in 2019. (credit: CLLC)

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Even as unprecedented levels of public funds have been directed towards the restoration, stewardship, and conservation of our lands and waters in recent years, the influx of project delivery funding has only served to underscore a gap that needs to be filled: the on-the-ground capacity to get the work done. The Catalyst Fund aims to build capacity and help local Landscape Partnerships contribute toward achieving national conservation goals. 

Catalyst Fund: an innovative and critical funding source

The Network for Landscape Conservation launched the Catalyst Fund Program in 2019 to accelerate the pace and practice of collaborative landscape conservation and stewardship across the United States. The Catalyst Fund couples financial support through a competitive grant process with an in-depth Peer Learning and capacity building experience. The CF focuses on strengthening the collaborative capacity of place-based, community-grounded Landscape Partnerships. These investments are intended to better position Partnerships to achieve long-term conservation and stewardship success, building in landscapes across the country the enduring collaborative infrastructure and social capital needed to address systems-level challenges like the biodiversity, climate change, and environmental injustice crises. A portion of the Fund is dedicated to supporting Indigenous leadership in landscape conservation and stewardship.

With this its sixth annual grant cycle, the Catalyst Fund has supported 85 Landscape Partnerships from throughout the United States, totaling more than $2 million in support. The Catalyst Fund seeks to boost Partnerships that demonstrate a genuinely collaborative approach to protecting the landscapes they call home. These Partnerships are working on a broad range of issues and priorities that are relevant to their home landscapes,  ranging from climate resilience, wildlife corridor protection, landscape connectivity, watershed enhancement and management, cultural revitalization, Indigenous co-stewardship, forest health, and more. 

Highlight: Peer Learning commitment and Annual Retreat

Collaborative landscape conservation and stewardship is an emerging practice, and practitioners often feel as if they must wrestle with figuring out the what and how of this work on their own. Recognizing this, the Catalyst Fund has embraced an emphasis on peer learning. NLC supports a peer learning cohort for grantees in each grant cycle, providing regular networking and exchange/learning opportunities for the grantees. Through monthly virtual meetings and an in-person annual retreat, the cohorts connect with one another to share support, insight, knowledge, exploration, and inspiration–all of which strengthens practitioner capacity and confidence to carry out the complex, challenging, and essential work of building and stewarding collaboration for landscape outcomes.  

2024 Grant Awards! 

Every year, the Network receives submissions from across the United States–all of which reflect inspiring work aimed at shifting trajectories within landscapes in response to the climate and biodiversity crises and the legacies of environmental injustice.

Check out the 2024 Catalyst Fund Grant Awards Here

As the Network reflects on this grant cycle—and indeed on the last six years of grantmaking and capacity-building within the Catalyst Fund—it seems only clearer  that the place-based, community-grounded Landscape Partnerships that apply to the Catalyst Fund are essential vehicles for delivering the holistic conservation, stewardship, and restoration successes needed to respond to the interwoven biodiversity, climate, and environmental injustice crises. As NLC Director Jon Peterson notes, 

“We continue to feel that collaborative capacity investments are a critical, foundational–and too often missing–element. Such investments open the aperture of opportunity and potential: By supporting the core functions of bringing people together across interest, perspective, and cultures, and enabling effective collaboration over time, collaborative capacity creates the space to develop and bring forward the bold, innovative, and previously unimagined (or perhaps even previously unimaginable) projects that are capable of addressing complex, pressing challenges. In short, this is how we bring forward systems-level solutions to the systems-level challenges we face.”

The Network for Landscape Conservation is a fiscally sponsored project of the Center for Large Landscape Conservation. Generous support for the Catalyst Fund is provided by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation.

^{Top photo: Tent Rocks, Cochiti Pueblo, New Mexico. Credit: Unsplash}

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In the 738 biosphere regions worldwide* (also called biosphere reserves outside of North America), lands and waters are designated into three zones: Core areas comprise strictly protected ecosystems where only research and education activities are permitted. National parks are often at the core of biosphere regions. Activities in buffer zones should promote sustainable use and conservation, while also providing benefits to local communities. They may include, for example, sustainable agriculture and forestry, ecotourism, and traditional practices. People live in the transition zones, which generally support the greatest use and activities, and foster socio-culturally and ecologically sustainable development.  

To promote the sharing of lessons learned, biosphere region managers worldwide organize themselves in regional networks. Sharing the focus on large landscapes, the Center for Large Landscape Conservation serves as the fiscal sponsor for the U.S. Biosphere Network (USBN), which fosters national and international connections among the 28 biosphere regions in the continental United States, the US Caribbean, Alaska, and Hawai’i. 

Managers of North American and European biosphere regions meet every year to discuss different topics and exchange lessons learned. The conference hosted at the Elbe River Landscape Biosphere Reserve in Germany in June of this year was an opportunity for the Center to stimulate a discussion around ecological connectivity because counteracting fragmentation is vital for sustainability and resilience of all landscapes.  For example, in the Crown of the Continent biosphere region, which straddles the US and Canada, maintaining habitat connectivity for large mammals such as grizzly bears is a key concern. In the Congaree Biosphere Region in South Carolina—home to the largest, contiguous, intact expanse of old-growth forest remaining in North America—free-flowing watersheds are crucial to sustaining the forest. These same watersheds and forests also provide ecosystem services, such as clean air and clean water. 

Together with Jeremy Dertien with the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research, and Ancuta Fedorca at the National Institute for Research and Development in Forestry in Romania, Annika organized a half-day workshop to share guidelines and insights about connectivity conservation and discuss challenges and opportunities of establishing ecological corridors in biosphere regions. To introduce the topic, she presented the IUCN connectivity guidelines as best practices to consider for biosphere regions. Jeremy also shared the new Guidelines for Connectivity Conservation in Europe and progress towards modeling connectivity for all of Europe.  

Two case studies illustrated aspects of connectivity planning and implementation in biosphere reserves, highlighting challenges and solutions. Ancuta shared that in Romania, genetic data on brown bears help scientists plan for the locations of movement corridors and crossing structures to mitigate the fragmenting effects of roads. 

Ruth Simons explained that in British Columbia, Canada, an initiative led by the Squamish Environment Society, the Howe Sound Biosphere Region Initiative Society, and a coalition of local and regional planning authorities support land managers in safeguarding and restoring pathways of wildlife connectivity that are needed to increase ecosystem resilience to climate change in two biosphere reserves.  

During a lively discussion, participants shared insights on efforts to establish ecological corridors, socio-cultural challenges and opportunities for planning and establishing corridors, and technical challenges around planning for connectivity conservation. 

In 2025, the global biosphere conference will take place in China with the goal of passing the biosphere reserve strategy and action plan for the next 10 years. The workshop participants formulated a recommendation for the global biosphere reserve community to consider for inclusion in the strategy and action plan:  

“The “Post-2025 Strategy and Action Plan” should support Biosphere Reserves in planning and implementing ecological corridors in addition to core areas, buffer zones, and transition areas, in order to maintain or restore effective ecological connectivity, reduce fragmentation and increase resilience.”  

We will keep you updated on the matter as we learn whether ecological corridors will become a tool widely promoted in biosphere regions globally. 

_{*Biosphere Reserves are designated under the intergovernmental MAB Programme by the Director-General of UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) and their status is internationally recognized. Member States can submit sites through the designation process.}

_{Top photo: Participants of the 2024 conference of the American and European Biosphere Regions, Elbe River Landscape Biosphere Reserve, Germany. Credit: ©Deutsche UNESCO-Kommission/Stefanie Wetzel}

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NEWS RELEASE

March 18, 2024

BOZEMAN, MT ─ A century ago, an estimated 100,000 elephants roamed throughout Asia. Today, fewer than half that number of Asian elephants remain in just 13 countries. Among the reasons for this decline is the explosion of new roads, railways and other linear infrastructure across the continent. In fact, collisions with cars and trains are a leading cause of elephant mortality in India, and many more elephants are impacted by roads and railways causing habitat loss and fragmentation. 

In response, The Center for Large Landscape Conservation (CLLC) and its partners in the Asian Elephant Transport Working Group (AsETWG) announce the publication of the first elephant-specific handbook to help countries reduce collisions and provide safe passage for elephants. The Handbook to Mitigate the Impacts of Roads and Railways on Asian Elephants was co-authored by two CLLC staff members alongside nine other experts on elephants and transport ecology from the AsETWG—a joint collaboration of the IUCN WCPA Connectivity Conservation Specialist Group and the IUCN SSC Asian Elephant Specialist Group comprised of more than 30 volunteer experts. It aims to provide workable solutions for transportation planners and engineers to protect Asian elephants from the negative impacts of roads and railways. 

“Elephants need to move to survive—to find food, water, and mates. In some cases, new roads and railways are being built right across ancient Asian elephant migration routes,“ says CLLC Senior Conservationist Rob Ament, who is Co-chair of the AsETWG and co-author of the Handbook. 

Ament says such impacts will grow in the future, given the rapid pace of LI development in Asia, so avoiding and mitigating the impacts of roads and railways is essential for conserving this endangered species. 

“This Handbook gives specific recommendations for reducing the harmful impacts of roads and railways by providing expert-informed guidance on designing larger, elephant-specific crossings,” says Ament. 

“This publication combines decades of experience from the contributors and is a prime example of collaboration across sectors and political boundaries to tackle a serious conservation issue,” adds CLLC International Connectivity Project Specialist Melissa Butynski, who is Coordinator of the AsETWG and co-author of the Handbook. 

“People living and working in countries with Asian elephants see the very real threats from linear infrastructure this incredible species faces,” says Butynski. “There is a sense of urgency to act before it’s too late.” 

Today, Asian elephants are listed as ‘Endangered’ on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, and only an estimated 52,000 elephants remain in populations increasingly isolated from one another in Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Vietnam. 

The authors plan to introduce the Handbook’s recommendations within these countries and help facilitate next steps for solutions via webinars and in-person workshops for engineers, transportation planners, policymakers, financiers, government officials, conservationists and researchers. 

Vivek Menon, Co-founder of Wildlife Trust of India, Chair of the IUCN SSC Asian Elephant Specialist Group and author of the Handbook’s foreword, wrote, “I hope these guidelines find wide usage across the elephant range and that it is adapted and translated into local languages, so that its use across all 13 countries that still have the Asian elephant is encouraged.” 

View the Handbook here

 
The Handbook to Mitigate the Impacts of Roads and Railways on Asian Elephants was made possible through the support of the International Connectivity Program at the Center for Large Landscape Conservation, World Wildlife Fund, Whitley Fund for Nature and Friends. It was also supported in part by the Asia’s Linear Infrastructure safeGuarding Nature (ALIGN) Project, which aims to enhance the development and implementation of effective, high-quality linear infrastructure safeguards that protect people and nature from harm. The ALIGN Project is made possible by the generous support of the American people through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). 

About the Asian Elephant Transport Working Group 

The Asian Elephant Transport Working Group serves as the hub of expertise, synthesis, integration, practical guidance, and technical support to deliver practical, flexible, and science-based solutions that avoid and mitigate threats to Asian elephants posed by linear transportation infrastructure across all 13 range states. It is a joint collaboration of the IUCN WCPA Connectivity Conservation Specialist Group and the IUCN SSC Asian Elephant Specialist Group (AsESG). conservationcorridor.org/ccsg/working-groups/asetwg 

About the Center for Large Landscape Conservation 

The Montana, USA-based Center for Large Landscape Conservation advances ecological connectivity for climate resilience worldwide through science, policy, practice, and collaboration. The Center coordinates the Asian Elephant Transport Working Group as part of their role as Secretariat of the IUCN WCPA Connectivity Conservation Specialist Group (CCSG) largelandscapes.org 

### 

CONTACT: 

Christine Weinheimer 
Communications Manager 
Center for Large Landscape Conservation 
communications@largelandscapes.org 

Top photo: Asian elephant with automobile. Credit: stbaumgaertner via Pixabay 

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NEWS RELEASE

BOZEMAN, MT, October 11, 2022 – This is a watershed moment for conservation in the United States. The Biden administration’s America the Beautiful initiative—along with the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and Inflation Reduction Law—is driving unprecedented levels of funding into the restoration, stewardship, and conservation of our lands and waters. But this reveals a gap that needs to be filled: the on-the-ground capacity to get the work done. The Catalyst Fund, with support from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, aims to build capacity and help local and regional partnerships contribute toward achieving national conservation goals.

The Network for Landscape Conservation recently announced its newest round of Catalyst Fund grants, with 13 partnerships from throughout the United States receiving awards totaling more than $320,000 in support.

“These grants are aimed at strengthening the collaborative capacity of partnerships that demonstrate a genuinely collaborative approach to protecting the landscapes they call home, so that these partnerships can accelerate the pace and scale at which they realize successful conservation outcomes,” says Jonathan Peterson, Program Manager for the Network for Landscape Conservation.

Launched in 2019, the Catalyst Fund has now supported 55 landscape partnerships, distributing a total of more than $1.3 million in grants nationwide across four annual grant cycles.

These investments are timely: The scope and urgency of the climate and biodiversity crises and the legacies of environmental injustice require action at a landscape scale. The emerging federal funding recognizes this, focusing on getting projects with landscape-level impact completed on the ground. There is a missing piece though: investments are needed to support the processes of bringing people together across jurisdictions and perspectives, and of integrating the appropriate sciences and knowledge to imagine, develop, and be ready to deliver projects. Supporting the collaborative capacity of landscape partnerships is critical to maximizing the impact of the federal funding.

“The Catalyst Fund grants provide a unique opportunity to accelerate collaborative conservation projects across the country,” says Sacha Spector, program director for the environment at Doris Duke Charitable Foundation. “Tackling complex challenges like climate change, biodiversity loss and environmental injustice requires ambitious and innovative action that brings people together across geographic and institutional boundaries. We’re excited to support the Catalyst Fund’s effort to sustain capacity, foster collaboration and develop solutions that result in strong partnerships and connected landscapes.”

The Catalyst Fund is based on the belief that deep approaches to collaboration—in which understanding and connection is built across difference, and power is shared with those that have been historically excluded—are critical to efforts to sustain the ecological health of our landscapes and foster a more just, equitable future for our communities. A portion of the Fund is specifically dedicated to supporting Indigenous leadership in landscape conservation.

“At the core of the Catalyst Fund is the idea that people across the country care deeply about the places that they call home—the valleys, watersheds, mountain ranges, prairies, bays and estuaries that together make up the heirloom quilt of America’s lands and waters,” says Andrea Keller Helsel of the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. “There is lots of evidence that the diverse interests within those places are willing and able to work together to conserve the natural and cultural values they cherish. Catalyst Fund grants provide the wherewithal, particularly for underserved communities, to convene partners to discuss and shape their future and to chart a path forward.  These grants express faith in the wisdom of people to gather good information to make wise decisions about the conservation of our national landscape legacy.”

The 2022 Catalyst Fund grant recipients are:

• Bi-State Tribal Natural Resource Committee (California/Nevada—ancestral homelands of the Paiute, Washoe, and Western Shoshone)
• Blackstone Watershed Collaborative (Massachusetts/Rhode Island)
• Butte Creek Watershed Restoration Collaborative (California—ancestral homelands of the Mechoopda Indian Tribe of Chico Rancheria)
• Cold Hollow to Canada Regional Conservation Partnership (Vermont)
• Greater Chilkat Watershed Advisory Group (Alaska—ancestral homelands of the Jilkaat and Lkoot Tlingit)
• Nesika Wilamut (Oregon—ancestral homelands of the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde and the Confederated Tribes of Siletz)
• Salt Valley Watershed Landscape Conservation Partnership (Nebraska)
• Shoal Creek Watershed Consortium (Missouri)
• Stewarding the Asqinaq (Alaska—ancestral homelands of the Yup’ik)
• Tri-Pueblo Coalition (New Mexico—ancestral homelands of the Cochiti, Jemez, and Santo Domingo Pueblos)
• Upper Arkansas Watershed Partnership (Colorado)
• Western Klamath Restoration Partnership (California—ancestral homelands of the Karuk)
• Yuba Forest Network (California)

Learn more about the 2022 grant awards

About the Network for Landscape Conservation

The Network for Landscape Conservation advances collaborative, community-grounded conservation at the landscape scale as an essential approach to connect and protect nature, culture, and community. The Network connects people to ideas and innovations – and each other – building a community of practice for the field of landscape conservation. Its rapidly growing network currently includes more than 250 organizational partners and nearly 6,000 individual practitioners. The Network for Landscape Conservation is a fiscally sponsored project of the Center for Large Landscape Conservation. Learn more at landscapeconservation.org

About the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation:

The mission of the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation is to improve the quality of people’s lives through grants supporting the performing arts, environmental conservation, medical research and child well-being, and through preservation of the cultural and environmental legacy of Doris Duke’s properties. The mission of the Foundation’s Environment Program is to ensure a thriving, resilient environment for wildlife and people, and foster an inclusive, effective conservation movement. Learn more at: ddcf.org

About the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation:

The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation is a nonpartisan, private charitable foundation that advances ideas and supports institutions to promote a better world. For more than 50 years, they have supported efforts to advance education for all, preserve the environment, support vibrant performing arts, strengthen Bay Area communities, make the philanthropy sector more effective, and foster gender equity and responsive governance around the world. Learn more at hewlett.org

 
Contact:

Christine Gianas Weinheimer
Center for Large Landscape Conservation
(406) 578-1579
communications@largelandscapes.org

Photo, top: Members of the Taos Valley Watershed Coalition discuss project priorities during a field trip to El Salto del Agua Association lands near Taos. TVWC is a 2021 Catalyst Fund grantee. Credit: Taos Valley Watershed Coalition.

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Nonprofit leader in connectivity conservation will enhance the network’s efforts to connect people with nature

BOZEMAN, MT, May 31, 2022 – Biosphere regions are special places recognized internationally for their unique beauty, cultures, and economic value to society. They also contain landscapes and seascapes important to the well-being of humans and wildlife alike. Recently, these regions gained a new champion in their stewardship: the Center for Large Landscape Conservation announced today that they will support the United States Biosphere Network (USBN), a voluntary network representing the 28 biosphere regions located in the U.S., as a fiscally sponsored project.

The Center—the leading nonprofit organization focused on restoring ecological connectivity—will lend their science, policy, and capacity-building expertise to help strengthen the network of biosphere regions. As the fiscal sponsor of USBN, the Center will “incubate” the network and provide them with strategic counsel, infrastructure, access to their other national networks and partnerships, and organizational management.

“Caring for these biosphere regions is critical for helping to preserve biodiversity, and building stronger, healthier communities that are resilient to environmental change,” says Deb Kmon Davidson, VP for Partnerships & Advancement at the Center. “We look forward to sharing and applying best practices from our worldwide conservation experience to help raise USBN’s work to the next level.”

By positioning the network under the umbrella of its 501(c)(3) organization, the Center can receive tax-deductible donations and grants on behalf of USBN, which receives limited government funds. The network was recently awarded its first grant from the North American Commission for Environmental Cooperation. The CAN$160,000 grant is intended to help USBN, in collaboration with the Canadian Biosphere Regions Association, implement model environmental initiatives in North American communities that will help build long-term partnerships and promote a shared responsibility and stewardship for the environment.

Brian Houseal, Chair of the U.S. Biosphere Network, says that “while public lands are at the heart of each U.S. biosphere region, these regions are unique because they also focus on partnerships with private lands and local communities with working farms, forests, fisheries, and recreation and tourism opportunities.

“Good examples of people caring for their lands can be found across the country. Our public lands are beloved by millions for their treasured landscapes and seascapes, but these precious natural systems connect across the park entry gates. They extend well beyond borders and support vibrant human and wildlife communities,” says Houseal.

Biosphere regions are based on the idea that people and nature are not separate. In these spectacular places, citizens and organizations cooperate to enhance quality of life by maintaining the beauty and benefits of nature for local economies.

“This collaboration with the Center will strengthen on-the-ground efforts to address environmental change, loss of biodiversity, and development of local communities and their economies,” says Houseal. He adds, “the USBN is a voluntary, non-regulatory, grassroots network. Communities and organizations in biosphere regions are showing how people and nature can thrive together and provide local solutions to global challenges.”

The 28 U.S. biosphere regions are located throughout the continental United States, the U.S. Caribbean, Alaska, and Hawai’i. They encompass a wide range of landscapes including deserts, forests, grasslands, rivers, mountains, oceans, and coasts.

Learn more about US Biosphere Regions

Biosphere Region FAQs

Map and list of US Biosphere regions

About the Center for Large Landscape Conservation

The Center for Large Landscape Conservation is the hub of a growing global movement to reverse fragmentation of the earth’s large landscapes. It works to connect natural areas, support healthy wildlife habitats and safe migration for wide-ranging animals, and safeguard nature’s resilience to climate change. The Center accomplishes this by sharing science, policy, and network-building expertise with partners around the globe, with a vision of creating a world where humans and wildlife thrive in healthy, connected ecosystems.

About the U.S. Biosphere Network

The US Biosphere Network (USBN) is made up of 28 internationally recognized areas across the continental United States, the U.S. Caribbean, Alaska, and Hawai’i. Their beauty and value stand out in national parks, state parks, national forests, national marine sanctuaries as well as tribal and private lands, from deserts to forests, grasslands to rivers, and mountains to coasts. Biosphere regions are voluntary and nonregulatory. Private property rights and the respective jurisdictions of local, state, tribal, federal and local governments are not affected. Communities and partners within them work together to advance positive relationships between people and nature at large geographic scales. As part of the World Network of Biosphere Reserves, the USBN fosters national and international connections among biosphere regions, facilitates their sharing of best practices, and supports their work toward connecting people and nature.

Contact: Christine Gianas Weinheimer
Center for Large Landscape Conservation
(406) 578-1579
communications@largelandscapes.org

_{Photo: Green River, Mammoth Cave Biosphere Region, Kentucky – NPS Photo}

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The ocean is critical for sustaining a healthy planet. Consider these facts:

• The ocean produces over 50% of our oxygen.
• It regulates global temperature and weather.
• It provides nearly 7% of all protein consumed by humans. 
• Almost 71% of the Earth’s surface is covered by the ocean.
• Only about 8% is protected from increasing human pressures such as extraction, pollution, and fragmentation that are threatening its natural processes, habitats, and species. 

As part of its efforts to conserve the interlinkages of ecosystems to stem biodiversity loss and climate change, the Center operates the Marine Connectivity Working Group (MCWG). This network of experts with diverse interests—such as coral biologists, marine spatial planners, and ocean policy advisors—is now providing connectivity conservation solutions for better managing and sustaining the marine and coastal environment. 

Considering that connectivity research for the ocean is much less advanced than for land, marine experts encouraged the creation of MCWG to be dedicated to expanding the field and its applications. Now, with over 90 expert volunteer members from more than 25 countries on six continents, the group is promoting more consistent marine connectivity policies, programs, and practices through collaboration in science, planning, management, and governance. Together, this growing community of marine experts is working to better address the unique aspects of marine ecological connectivity.

2021 was a watershed year for MCWG and the following brief list highlights some of  the activities resulting from its collaboration and leadership:

• Publishing Marine Connectivity Conservation ‘Rules of Thumb’ for MPA and MPA Network Design to support more consistent efforts to implement solutions for marine protected areas and increase system-based conservation approaches for the management and protection of oceans and coasts. 
• Writing 15 case studies covering 31 countries that exemplify the ‘Rules of Thumb’ and featuring them in a layer on globescapes.org; 
• Publishing the article Advancing marine conservation through ecological connectivity: Building better connections for better protection in the journal Parks Stewardship Forum;
• Supporting planning and participating in the first and second “Deep Dive on Ecological Connectivity” webinars organized by the North American Marine Protected Areas Network (NAMPAN) which brings together resource agencies, managers, practitioners, and other experts across Canada, Mexico, and the United States;
• Developing and circulating a survey on the applicability of the Marine Connectivity Conservation ‘Rules of Thumb’ to eight international MPA networks to gauge current gaps in knowledge in the field of marine connectivity, and publishing Survey Findings: Marine Connectivity Applications in MPAs.
• Presenting the work of MCWG and the ‘Rules of Thumb’ during the symposium “Advancing consistent and measurable global ecological connectivity implementation” at the 2021 International Congress on Conservation Biology;
• Operating the MCWG webpage to continue to promote the group’s work, including the MCWG Library and an ongoing collection of Marine Connectivity Policy Resources. 

The Center thanks MCWG members for their time and efforts pioneering ways to establish marine connectivity conservation as an essential component of national, transboundary, and global policies, as well as on-the ground efforts that achieve long-term ecological integrity of marine and coastal environments.

VIDEO: Learn about one example of a marine ecological corridor and how science is helping countries to conserve it. (1 min, 45 sec)

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BOZEMAN, MT, December 8, 2021 – An international group of more than 25 elephant biologists and infrastructure ecologists released a report this week with an urgent message: All efforts to avoid key Asian elephant habitats and their migration corridors need to be made when developing linear infrastructure like roads, railways, and canals. If this is not possible, wildlife crossings are key to providing safe passage for this endangered species. The report comes in response to an explosion of new linear infrastructure across Asia that is increasingly blocking elephant movement and leading to deadly collisions.

The groundbreaking report “Protecting Asian Elephants from Linear Transport Infrastructure,” released by the Asian Elephant Transport Working Group and co-authored by staff from the Center for Large Landscape Conservation, outlines this growing threat and proposes solutions to protect this important species before it’s too late. Asian elephants once roamed widely throughout Asia, but now only around 52,000 animals remain in isolated pockets of Southern and Southeast Asia, and populations are declining.

“Across the 13 countries where Asian elephants still roam, the stressors of an expanding human presence are becoming more evident,” says co-author Rob Ament, co-chair of the Transport Working Group and senior conservationist at the Center for Large Landscape Conservation. “Tragically, India, an elephant stronghold, has documented more than 180 elephants killed by trains in a little more than ten years.” says Ament.

Ament also points to the herd of elephants that made international headlines in 2020 and 2021 while traveling hundreds of miles away from China’s Xishuangbanna National Nature Reserve. Experts believe their unexpected journey was a direct result of increasing habitat loss and human intrusion.

Asian elephants thrive when they have the freedom to follow their traditional movement routes to access food, water, and mates. However, more frequently, transport infrastructure is stopping them. When a changing climate is factored in, it is especially important that these wide-ranging animals have the freedom to move and adapt.

Based on the latest research, the report reviews the evidence of impacts that transport infrastructure growth is having on Asian elephant populations and presents guidelines, policies, laws, practices, and emerging technologies that could reduce the risks. In addition, seven case studies from Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, India, and Malaysia illustrate how conflicts are being effectively addressed through the construction of wildlife crossings. 

The publication is being distributed widely to professionals involved with infrastructure development in Asia, including those working in government agencies, financial institutions, industry, and non-governmental organizations. The 12 co-authors hope the report, anticipated to be translated into multiple languages, will communicate the urgency and set in motion a more comprehensive approach to the long-term conservation of Asian elephants.

“We can’t afford to wait, since new linear infrastructure development is expanding rapidly. Ideally, new transport infrastructure can avoid crossing through key elephant habitat altogether,” says Ament. “But if that can’t happen, then we need to build elephant-sized wildlife crossings where they are needed, and we must get started as soon as possible.”

VIEW REPORT HERE

About the Asian Elephant Transport Working Group

The Asian Elephant Transport Working Group is a joint collaboration of the IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas’ Connectivity Conservation Specialist Group (CCSG) and the IUCN Species Survival Commission’s Asian Elephant Specialist Group (AsESG). It is focused on contributing to the improvement of core habitats and movement corridors that are threatened by new development and upgrading of linear infrastructure – especially roads, railways, and canals. 

About the Center for Large Landscape Conservation:

The Center for Large Landscape Conservation is the hub of a growing global movement to reverse fragmentation of the earth’s large landscapes and restore nature’s resilience to climate change. The Center works to advance ecological connectivity worldwide by reconnecting natural areas, providing critical wildlife habitat and safe migration for wide-ranging animals, and protecting ecosystem processes. They accomplish this by developing science, crafting policy, and sharing expertise with communities around the world. Since 2016, they have served as Secretariat of the IUCN WCPA Connectivity Conservation Specialist Group and its Transport Working Group. Largelandscapes.org

The report “Protecting Asian Elephants from Linear Transport Infrastructure” was made possible through the collaboration of many partners, and funding from the New York Community Trust, Elephant Family, Woodcock Foundation, and other donors. 

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Contact:

Christine Gianas Weinheimer
Center for Large Landscape Conservation
(406) 578-1579
communications@largelandscapes.org

The post New Report: Experts Say Roads, Rails, and Canals are Threatening Asian Elephant Survival appeared first on Center for Large Landscape Conservation.

This is a pivotal moment for conservation in America, as the climate, biodiversity, and environmental justice crises are only accelerating. At the same time, we are seeing a national discourse coalesce around ambitious conservation visions—like the Biden Administration’s America the Beautiful initiative, which recommends a ten-year, national, locally led campaign to restore the nation’s lands and waters.

While an overarching national framework is critical to ensure the scale of conservation efforts meets the scale of the 21st Century challenges we face, conservation at its most basic is a human endeavor based on knowledge, relationships, and trust—factors that are most effectively built and stewarded at a smaller scale. Thus, local and regional action is necessary for translating national goals into on-the-ground success in conserving landscapes that straddle political, geographic, and cultural divides.

The Catalyst Fund, in aiming to accelerate the pace and effective practice of collaborative landscape conservation, is a critical mechanism for making investments in the “vehicles” that will drive the needed local and regional action.  Grants are intended to serve as strategic investments in strengthening the collaborative capacity of place-based, community-grounded Landscape Conservation Partnerships, especially those at turning points in their development when an infusion of funds can be most impactful.

The 2021 Catalyst Fund grant recipients are:

• Black River Water Trail and Park Network (South Carolina)
• California Central Coast Joint Venture (California)
• East Yellowstone Collaborative Working Group (Wyoming)
• Kittatinny Coalition (Pennsylvania)
• Kali’uokapa’akai Collective (Hawaii)
• Lands Between Partnership (Utah)
• Little Sioux Watershed Conservation Partnership (Iowa & Minnesota)
• Lower Gila River Collaborative (Arizona)
• Moloka’i Wetlands Partnership (Hawaii)
• Ohio River Basin Restoration Partnership (multiple states)
• Taos Valley Watershed Coalition (New Mexico)
• Tribal Alliance for Pollinators (Oklahoma)
• Tulare Basin Watershed Partnership Network (California)
• Western Apache Working Group (Arizona)
• Wind River Conservation Office (Wyoming)

Launched in 2019, the Catalyst Fund has distributed a total of $1 million in grants nationwide across three annual grant cycles. The next anticipated Catalyst Fund grant cycle opening will be in early 2022. 

The Network for Landscape Conservation is a fiscally sponsored project of the Center for Large Landscape Conservation. Generous support for the Catalyst Fund is provided by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation.

Learn more about the 2021 grant awards

Photo: Gela del Rosario via Pexels

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These national dialogues fill an important information-sharing and network-building niche by engaging policy leaders from a broad and diverse spectrum of organizations.

Investments in Science and Networks for Biodiversity, Climate, and Cultural Conservation Goals

Wednesday, May 19, 11:00 am – 12:30 pm EDT

Join the Network for Landscape Conservation for the next event in the ongoing Virtual Policy Forum Series.  “The Future of Landscape Conservation: Investments in Science and Networks for Biodiversity, Climate, and Cultural Conservation Goals” will highlight needed investments in science and collaborative processes to meet current conservation goals.

Collaborative landscape conservation and stewardship is increasingly important as our country faces emerging challenges to address climate change, protect and restore biodiversity, create a more just and inclusive conservation paradigm, conserve working lands, and rebuild our economy. Hosted in collaboration with the California Landscape Stewardship Network, the 90-minute virtual discussion will convene experts representing diverse perspectives on opportunities to use science and other knowledge systems for catalyzing networks of people working together to affect change at larger scales.

This conversation is timely. As the nation grapples with emerging opportunities and approaches to conservation, it is important to understand how science and local knowledge can inform the ways we steward our nation’s lands and waters, and how to strengthen the role of networks as they foster collaborative decision-making at different scales.

Wade Crowfoot, Secretary of the California Natural Resources Agency will offer a keynote address and moderate a panel discussion with the following panelists:

• Jeff Allenby – Director of Geospatial Technology for the Center for Geospatial Solutions, ‎Lincoln Institute of Land Policy
• Bray Beltrán – Science Director, Heart of the Rockies Initiative
• Leroy Little Bear – Blackfoot researcher and Professor Emeritus, University of Lethbridge, Kainai First Nation
• Deb Rocque – Assistant Director of the Science Applications Program, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

Register for the Forum here

Funding to support this forum series has been provided by the Center for Large Landscape Conservation, US Fish & Wildlife Service Science Applications Program, and the Network for Landscape Conservation—a fiscally sponsored project of the Center.

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