International Connectivity

The Center is committed to elevating connectivity conservation through collaborative partnerships, highlighted by our role as Secretariat of the IUCN WCPA Connectivity Conservation Specialist Group (CCSG).

CCSG’s 1,300+ volunteer members from 125+ countries are experts working in government, scientific, academic, non-profit, and business sectors who promote connectivity conservation at local to international levels.

The Group recruits members and engages partners worldwide to inspire innovation, raise awareness, and increase capacity to achieve a healthier planet of connected ecosystems.  

The IUCN WCPA Connectivity Conservation Specialist Group and the Center collaborated with 100+ experts in 80+ countries to deliver the first-ever IUCN Guidelines for Conserving Connectivity through Ecological Networks and Corridors in 2020. Culminating over two decades of effort by the Union, the Guidelines and 25 case studies—now translated from English into four languages—are the leading resource for advancing best practices for maintaining, enhancing, and restoring ecological connectivity. 

For more information on the Connectivity Conservation Specialist Group, please contact Aaron Laur.

The Center is addressing the immense impact of linear infrastructure on the environment, especially roads, railways, canals, and transmission lines. For example, through support of the CCSG Transport Working Group, 100+ members are advancing scientific and policy solutions to avoid and mitigate impacts that include habitat fragmentation and wildlife mortality. View the Transport Working Group’s technical report ‘Addressing ecological connectivity in the development of roads, railways and canals,’ published in 2023.

Additional subgroups are also actively addressing specific and urgent issues:

The Asian Elephant Transport Working Group informs research, data collection, analysis, and capacity-building to protect the threatened core habitats and movement corridors in the Asian elephant’s 13 range states.

The Latin American and Caribbean Transport Working Group brings together biologists, transportation practitioners, and financial institution specialists to promote leadership in sustainable planning, design, construction, and monitoring of infrastructure development that supports ecological connectivity.

For more information about the Center’s International Connectivity Program, please contact Aaron Laur.

The M9 highway through Zambia’s Kafue National Park is an important route for motorists but for many animals—such as lions, cheetahs, antelope, and wild dogs—it is also a dangerous barrier. A 2006 upgrade of the highway increased traffic speed and volume, resulting in more wildlife-vehicle collisions and disruption of the natural movements of species to find food, water and mates. To address the reduction in wildlife populations and threats to their long-term survival, the Center for Large Landscape Conservation partnered with the Zambian Carnivore Programme to understand exactly where and how this road is putting wildlife at risk through a comprehensive assessment. Targeted solutions were then recommended to make the road safer for wildlife while keeping people moving.   Learn more

The Trifinio-Fraternidad Transboundary Biosphere Reserve (TFTBR) is a land of steep mountains covered by dense tropical forest and is home to iconic species such as quetzal and puma. Spanning parts of Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador, the biosphere reserve is a model in transboundary environmental governance, established primarily to safeguard vital water sources that originate in the mountains and flow to major population centers in all three countries. In 2025, the Center for Large Landscape Conservation worked with UNESCO and regional partners on a project to strengthen ecological connectivity and landscape resilience in this important ecosystem. Learn more