Our planet is facing threats from climate change, the loss of biodiversity, and a continued global pandemic. However, in the United States, there are some hopeful signs. Landscape scale conservation efforts are expanding by building on more than a century of work. The federal budget for these initiatives is also growing - although much more could still be done. Many of the last administration's ill-advised decisions are being reversed, including the push to move the Bureau of Land Management headquarters from Washington D.C. to Colorado.
At the international level, the recent IUCN World Conservation Congress in Marseille also emphasized landscape scale action. The conference concluded with a Manifesto that struck a hopeful note about the world's ability to embrace transformative change. Under the banner of One Nature, One People, the Congress committed to a new, more people-based emphasis. This approach fosters a meaningful role in conserving the future for all “from grassroots organizations to governments and communities to corporations.”
The Living Landscape Observer is a website, blog and monthly e-newsletter that offers commentary and information on the emerging field of large landscape conservation.
There is a growing recognition that cultural resources are a part of the larger landscape. The idea that there is a unity of nature and culture has created a significant opportunity for cultural resource practitioners to contribute to the new field of landscape scale conservation. There are compelling reasons to partner up with this emerging movement. The nature conservation field has long recognized that threats to natural resources occur at multiple and much larger spatial scales than those usually addressed in cultural resource preservation. Let's work together for a better future.
The origin story (or likely stories) of the landscape scale conservation movement has yet to be told. However, in the United States, there has been a long tradition of managing fish and wildlife habitat with the understanding that species preservation required the conservation of wider ecosystems. Early on, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service focused on preserving refuges for migrating and breeding populations of wildlife in places like Pelican Island National Wildlife Preserve in Florida. State agencies also spent decades protecting wildlife habitats.
From these beginnings, governmental programs and policies to tackle conservation work at scale have proliferated. And now, these efforts have received much needed reinforcement from the nonprofit sector with the work of organizations like the Network for Landscape Conservation.
What We Are Watching: Videos from the IUCN WCC 2021
The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) held the World Conservation Congress this September 2021 in Marseille (rescheduled from 2020). Still, many of us were unable to attend, so watching the highlights online is another option. Today, the world recognizes the inextricable link between biodiversity conservation and human and economic well-being - a connection made all the more visible by the COVID-19 pandemic. The Congress functions as a key milestone for nature conservation and the development of a new global framework for biodiversity.
FY 2022 Federal Budget
In what has become an all too familiar fall ritual, Congress is currently mired in a partisan budget debate, which has the potential to bring the federal government to a standstill. If a budget does pass, however, what might it mean for large landscape conservation?
The IUCN World Conservation Congress September 3-11, 2021 in Marseille, France concluded with the adoption of the Marseille Manifesto, which focused on a limited number of key issues - recovery after Covid-19, the biodiversity crisis, and the climate emergency. Three striking findings of the Manifesto were the call to harness the perspective and efforts of all citizens, pursuing collaboration and partnership, and local action as a powerful tool for change.
Bureau of Land Management (BLM) - Interior Secretary Deb Haaland outlined next steps to rebuild the agency and announced plans to restore the BLM's national headquarters to Washington, D.C.. Read the full press release here.For the back story on this issue, see this September 2019 article in the Living Landscape Observer - Landscape Management More than Just Words.What a difference two years make!
