Recently, conservation leaders from across the nation and representing broad sectors attended the 90th annual North American Wildlife and Natural Resources Conference in Louisville, KY. This year, partners from the Southeast Conservation Adaptation Strategy (SECAS) staff, the Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies (AFWA), the Wildlife Management Institute, and the Native American Fish and Wildlife Society (NAFWS) hosted a special session at the conference titled “Beyond the Boundaries: Exploring Opportunities for Cross-regional Landscape-scale Conservation”. The session provided an overview and update on each of the regional partnerships and delved into the potential for, and growing interest in, creating a unified national framework for collaborative conservation.

Cross-Boundary Collaboration

Jeremy Roberts, Conservation Media, Flickr

Across the nation, regional associations are bringing together broad coalitions of partners working at various scales to achieve diverse, yet compatible, goals. Partnerships like the Midwest Landscape Initiative (MLI), the Southeast Conservation Adaptation Strategy (SECAS), the Northeast Landscape Wildlife Conservation Committee, and Western Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies are achieving conservation wins for regional priorities through local engagement. Whether it is around species of greatest conservation need, pervasive threats such as encroaching invasive species, or landscape designs such as the Sagebrush biome’s Protect the Core, Grow the Core strategy, these partnerships are creating community of practices that are resulting in durable and effective wildlife and habitat conservation. As these partnerships gain momentum, there is strong interest in working across regions to share knowledge, work more efficiently, and support partners working along the regional boundaries.

Every AFWA region shares portions of its geography with neighboring regions. Many states fall within two AFWA regions–for example, Kentucky and Missouri, which are shared by the Southeast and Midwest, and Virginia and West Virginia, which are shared by the Southeast and Northeast. These shared geographies have led to conversations across the MLI, Northeast Landscape Wildlife Conservation Committee, and SECAS about how to better serve people working within these overlap areas or along the boundaries of regional conservation plans.

Opportunities for National Framework

The special session provided a forum for regional initiatives to share how they are already integrating their work while maintaining their unique governance structures, conservation priorities, and decision-making processes. More importantly, the session also gave attendees and participants an opportunity to discuss if there is a need for, or interest in, exploring a national framework for collaborative conservation planning.

All attendees who participated in the poll indicated a strong interest in further exploring a potential national framework, with benefits including improved efficiency and more effective outcomes for wildlife. 

Session attendees were specifically asked to indicate if developing a unified cross-regional conservation framework was important, and to list the benefits and challenges of strengthening cross-regional conservation partnerships. All attendees who participated in the poll indicated a strong interest in further exploring a potential national framework, with benefits including improved efficiency and more effective outcomes for wildlife. Attendees also listed a lack of funding and different priorities as potential challenges. Interestingly, attendees listed capacity as both a challenge and a benefit of cross-boundary collaboration.

From here, the Landscape Conservation Joint Task Force (JTF), which serves as forum to enhance coordination between state and federal leadership, will work with partners to develop a workshop that brings together state and federal leadership, the governing bodies of the regional initiatives, and NAFWS. The workshop will further explore interest in, and collect input to inform a broader framework for landscape-scale conservation that not only aligns with national initiatives but also preserves the autonomy and strengths of regional efforts. These collaborative efforts at local, state, regional and national scales are ways to increase the effectiveness of conservation actions. The Outdoor News Bulletin will be highlighting the work of regional landscape conservation partnerships in future issues.