Networks We Host Archives - Center for Large Landscape Conservation

CCSG Deputy Chair Jodi Hilty (far left) and Chair Gary Tabor (second from right) with the team from CLLC in Romania in 2019

Saving the Spaces in Between: CLLC Promotes International Collaboration for Connectivity

Some of the greatest success stories in conservation are the creation of formally protected areas of land and water such as national parks and reserves. While essential to conserving nature around the world, these areas alone can’t sustain biodiversity if they are isolated patches surrounded by people and infrastructure. Wildlife, especially migratory and wide-ranging species, need connected habitats to find food, water, and mates and adapt to climate change. Safeguarding the natural corridors and movement routes between protected areas forms the basis of connectivity conservation. Yet these critical linkages are increasingly threatened by rapid development and mounting human pressures.

Catalyst Fund: Supporting Collaboration in Landscape Conservation

Last month the Network for Landscape Conservation announced the latest round of Catalyst Fund grant awards, with 15 Landscape Partnerships receiving support to accelerate their efforts to protect the ecological, cultural, and community values of the landscapes they call home. 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.

Euromab2024 Deutsche Unesco Kommission Stefanie Wetzel

Reflections on EuroMAB: Stimulating Connectivity Conservation in Biosphere Regions Worldwide

Many of us are familiar with Biosphere 2, the research facility created in Arizona to demonstrate the viability of closed ecological systems to support and maintain human life in outer space. However, biosphere regions are model landscapes for sustainable development through collaboration and engagement. They are places designated for their unique beauty and biodiversity, and also recognized for their value to the communities of people living there, making them ideal models for large landscape conservation. The Center for Large Landscape Conservation’s Senior Conservation Scientist Dr. Annika Keeley recently had the opportunity to attend and present at EuroMAB—an international gathering of biosphere region leaders—to discuss the critical role connectivity conservation plays in these extraordinary places.

New Push to Protect Endangered Asian Elephants from Roads and Railways

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.

Grant Program Drives Collaborative, Local Action to Achieve National Conservation Goals

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 influx of federal project delivery funding 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 Center Announces Sponsorship of United States Biosphere Network

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.

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.

New Report: Experts Say Roads, Rails, and Canals are Threatening Asian Elephant Survival

An international group of more than 25 elephant biologists and infrastructure ecologists released a report today 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.

2021 Catalyst Fund Grant Awards

The Network for Landscape Conservation has announced its 2021 Catalyst Fund grant awards, with 15 Landscape Conservation Partnerships from throughout the United States receiving support. Funds will be used to advance Partnerships’ efforts to protect the ecological, cultural, and community values of the landscapes they call home. Grants are made to Partnerships demonstrating a genuinely collaborative approach to conservation, involving a variety of stakeholders and often including historically marginalized communities who have been excluded from previous land-management decisions. In particular, a portion of the Fund is specifically dedicated to supporting Indigenous leadership in landscape conservation.

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.

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