Diving In: The Center Helps Advance Marine Connectivity

When we hear the term “ecological corridors” we tend to think of the natural pathways that land animals like elk or elephants use to move among larger natural areas to eat, drink, mate and meet other survival needs. Corridors are equally important for marine life like whales, turtles, fish, and seabirds, which depend on linkages between ocean areas for daily movement, seasonal migration, and completing their life cycles. Until recently, collaborative research and guidance on marine ecological connectivity had been lacking, but now the Center for Large Landscape Conservation is supporting coordination of work by a unique group of experts that is making the issue a top priority.

Partner Spotlight: Gerald Wagner

Gerald Wagner is the Director of the Blackfeet Environmental Program and Director of Blackfeet Nation’s Drinking Water, Wastewater, and Solid Waste Program. We sat down with Gerald to discuss the insights he’s gained from his extensive work in conservation and his advice for conservation groups who want to partner with Tribal Nations and Indigenous Peoples.

Conservation Experts Call for a New National Landscape Conservation Framework

The Biden administration has proposed a bold conservation agenda to address biodiversity, environmental justice, and climate change. Through an executive order and a subsequent report, the administration proposes an unprecedented and visionary response to the current environmental crises. However, this guidance does not detail how the principles, priorities, and objectives outlined in the report will be implemented. The Center for Large Landscape Conservation and partners have provided a potential roadmap for how to achieve these ambitious goals.

Virtual Policy Forum Series Spring Webinar

Collaborative landscape conservation is increasingly important as our country faces emerging challenges to address climate change, biodiversity, environmental justice, conservation of working lands, and rebuilding our economy. Join the Network for Landscape Conservation for the Policy Forum webinar “The Future of Landscape Conservation: Investments in Science and Networks for Biodiversity, Climate, and Cultural Conservation Goals,” which will highlight needed investments to meet these current conservation challenges.

Connecting Youth for Nature: Experiences from the Global Youth Summit

Akash Patil of India spoke of his first encounter with a leopard and his subsequent commitment to a career in conservation. Nayla Azmi told a story of growing up in an Indonesian palm oil plantation and her journey to become an orangutan protector. Sarah Kulis, a recent graduate from West Virginia University, and legally blind, encouraged other aspiring conservationists with disabilities to persevere. These were three of the young storytellers who shared their experiences in conservation at the Center’s workshop at the recent IUCN Global Youth Summit.

Creating Safe Passage for Desert Tortoises

Road ecologist Elizabeth Fairbank looks out across a seemingly endless expanse of the Mojave Desert in southern Nevada. The roadside location feels remote on this quiet February morning, but a bird’s eye view would reveal a slightly different story: the desert is crisscrossed with a web of roads and highways that did not exist a few decades ago. Fairbank is on a site visit to the heart of Desert Tortoise habitat, hoping to help save the species before it’s too late.

Partnership Spotlight: Wildlife Connect

Wildlife Connect is an exciting new initiative of WWF International, and the Center for Large Landscape Conservation is advising on its development. The partnership aims to create ecologically connected and thus climate-resilient landscapes throughout WWF’s conservation work with a focus on three important and vulnerable landscapes on three continents.

Join Us at the First-Ever IUCN Global Youth Summit

The virtual IUCN “One Nature, One Future” Global Youth Summit takes place April 5-16, 2021, and the Center for Large Landscape Conservation will host two sessions for young conservationists. The Summit is designed to strengthen connections between young leaders globally and add momentum to growing youth movements for nature and climate. Since the two-week event will be entirely virtual, and entirely free, there’s no reason not to register!

Catalyst Fund Offers Grant Opportunity for Landscape Conservation Partnerships

The forests, deserts, mountains, oceans, and other landscapes that support life on Earth are not defined by boundaries on maps. A single river—or a wildlife migration route—might pass through state, federal, tribal, and private lands. For this reason, collaboration that reaches across invisible borders is essential for effective landscape conservation, and the Catalyst Fund is making strategic investments in organizational capacity to make such collaborative conservation successful.

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