A national Landscape Conservation Cooperative (LCC) workshop held in Denver in late March had 350 conservation professionals in attendance, according to the Wildlife Management Institute. The purpose of the workshop was to advance the evolution of the LCC network by providing a forum for the LCCs and partners to share and discuss landscape conservation tools, approaches, challenges, and successes.

Established in 2009 by the U.S. Department of the Interior, LCCs are intended to improve conservation planning and design by identifying best practices for partner agencies and organizations to coordinate with each other while working within their existing authorities and jurisdictions. LCCs connect efforts amongst various public and private partners in order to determine information gaps and avoid duplication on conservation efforts. LCC partners include representatives from state and federal natural resource management agencies, tribes, non-governmental organizations, universities and others.

The role of each LCC is to develop common goals and strategies while leveraging funding, staff and resources to inform landscape-scale planning and management decisions. LCCs link science to management and facilitate information exchange among partners. To date, twenty-two LCCs have been established that collectively form a national network that share a common need for scientific information and an interest in conservation.

Sessions at the workshop included targeting the right science to the right places, LCC interaction/collaboration with current, large-scale conservation efforts (such as bird joint ventures and fish habitat partnerships), and opportunities for LCCs to help define the conservation landscape of the 21^st century.

"Given the strong attendance and levels of interest shown at the various sessions, it appeared that the workshop was quite a success," said Doug Austen, National Coordinator for the LCC Program. "Perhaps one of the most valuable outcomes of the workshop was the forum it provided for LCC staff and partners to network and learn about initiatives and approaches underway in other parts of the country."

Twenty-first century conservation challenges such as land use change, drought, wildfire, habitat fragmentation, contaminants, pollution, invasive species, disease and a rapidly changing climate will transcend political and jurisdictional boundaries and require a more networked approach to conservation. LCCs provide a mechanism to address this challenge.

Learn more about LCCs.