Ten of the 21 Landscape Conservation Cooperatives (LCCs) being developed by the U.S. Department of the Interior extend across international borders, with Canada to the north and Mexico to the south. For several of these LCCs, significant portions fall outside the jurisdiction of the United States. For example, 47 percent of the Great Northern LCC covers lands in British Columbia and Alberta. If these trans-boundary LCCs are to fulfill their potential to conserve species and ecosystem function across large landscapes and provide the opportunity for species to adapt to the impacts of climate change, they must become effective, multi-national partnerships, reports the Wildlife Management Institute.

Recent developments in the Great Northern LCC provide evidence that collaboration need not be constrained by international borders. Representatives from the British Columbia and Alberta provincial governments, as well as several Canadian federal agencies, attended last month's meeting of the Great Northern LCC steering committee. The steering committee welcomed their colleagues from the North and amended their governance document to recognize the role of Canadian partners. Throughout the two-day meeting the steering committee discussed ways to integrate conservation efforts as seamlessly as possible, given the complex jurisdictional make-up of the LCC.

International cooperation in the region is not entirely new. Alberta has been actively involved with U.S. agencies for several years in the Crown Manager's Partnership, which focuses on the Glacier/Waterton International Peace Park ecosystem. The Governor of Montana and the Premier of British Columbia signed a memorandum of understanding last year, pledging their governments would work together to conserve the Flathead drainage. According to Great Northern LCC Coordinator Yvette Converse, this history of collaboration and the need for a mechanism to implement the agreement for the Flathead helped propel the international efforts of the LCC. The LCC provides a way for agencies on both sides of the border to work through the practical issues that are bound to arise when trying to implement effective conservation on the ground in an international context.

When asked how other LCCs that span international borders could encourage participation, Converse pointed to the importance of the U.S. members of the steering committee creating a welcome environment and offering their foreign counterparts equal status in governance of the LCC. Further, those members made it clear they respected the Canadian agencies' authority to lead efforts of the LCC north of the border, rather than trying to impose solutions that might work in U.S social and political environments beyond U.S. borders.

Assistant Deputy Minister of the B.C. Ministry of Lands, Forests and Natural Resource Operations, Rick Manwaring, told the steering committee that the provincial government viewed the LCC as an important means to work with U.S. partners. The Canadians' commitment to the LCC is reflected in their appointment of a co-coordinator to serve as a liaison with her counterpart in the U.S., and their offer to host the next steering committee north of the border.

Collaboration between the U.S., Canada and Mexico dates back at least as far as the Migratory Bird Treaty. Building on partnerships that flowed from that treaty, such as the North American Waterfowl Management Plan and multiple joint ventures, the LCCs can again help significantly facilitate conservation of the wildlife resources across the continent, without regard to lines on the map. (cs)