The Landscape Conservation Bulletin | |
A bi-monthly service of the Network for
Landscape Conservation
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Dear Network Friends,
The work of landscape conservation and stewardship is incredibly difficult, complex, and challenging—and yet also exceedingly simple: At its most fundamental, our work is about asking, “What do we want for this place, in the future?”
This work starts with us, as individuals, considering our relationship to the lands and waters around us—what do we value and cherish? And it builds as we connect, individual-to-individual, to others that too share those lands and waters. Out of those individual and shared relationships we weave decisions on how we as communities will relate to and care for those landscapes into the future. Simple…but not easy.
As we reflect on the aftermath of the election here in America, what is so hopeful about our shared work is how humanizing it is. The asking of one another, ‘What do we want for this place?’ forces us to see the stories and values and love and dreams that those around us carry in their lives. In the face of the coming four years and the prospects of fear and distrust and division being used as tools of power, the work that all of you are doing in your own individual landscapes is more important than ever before.
As we move into the closing month of the year, we hope you find time to process, and to rest, recharge, and care for yourself. And we hope that you continue to carry your work forward with energy and intentionality, that you continue to bring people together to envision inclusive, just futures where people and nature can thrive. We very much look forward to lifting up your stories as you do so—and hope, finally, that this broader community of practice continues to be a source of support and inspiration.
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Federal Agencies Support Landscape Approach | PFP model in Conservation Effort | Additional Landscape Conservation News | Landscape Conservation Job Board | Webinars & Additional Resources | |
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Jonathan Peterson
Director, Network for Landscape Conservation
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Banner photo: Ward Marsh Wildlife Management Area (Vermont), Credit: Dylan Oleary/The Nature Conservancy | |
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Featured News
Federal agencies codify landscape approaches to resource management
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 | | This month, the U.S. Department of the Interior released its first-ever Department-wide guidance on implementing landscape-level approaches to managing our natural and cultural resources. Following up on the 2023 revision and reissue of the Departmental Manual chapter on implementing landscape-level approaches to resource management, this guide explains key provisions and provides recommendations for Interior Department staff on effectively implementing that policy. The guide offers insights on how Department bureaus and offices can apply landscape-level approaches directly through planning, mitigation, and management actions—and best practices for Department staff to participate in landscape-level collaboratives that include non-government partners. Elsewhere, the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced last month a Department-wide effort to support connectivity of wildlife habitat on working landscapes through the management of National Forests and voluntary conservation assistance on private agricultural lands. Focusing on terrestrial wildlife habitat connectivity and corridors, this Secretary’s Memorandum again recognizes that coordination within the Department and with state, private, and Tribal partners is key to resource management efforts.
These actions at the Federal level underscore how important a collaborative approach is to tackling complex natural and cultural resource challenges. Many of the challenges that we are confronting in the 21st Century transcend boundaries and pose risks at a scale that necessitates coordination across multiple jurisdictions, and it is increasingly clear that we must bring shared solutions forward that bring together the wealth of experience, insight, and knowledge from both governmental and non-governmental partners.
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Featured News
“It’s not just about the hectares, it’s really about the people”: Innovative funding mechanism enables massive Indigenous-led conservation effort in Northwest Territories, Canada
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Recently, more than 20 Indigenous governments and organizations—representing the majority of Indigenous nations in the territory—joined additional public and private partners in signing a historic conservation agreement in Canada’s Northwest Territories. The conservation deal will add nearly 200,000 square kilometers of new protected and conserved areas—roughly the size of Great Britain—and will impact the management and stewardship of an additional 180,000 acres. An in-depth article in The Narwhal explores how this agreement came together, and what it means for the Indigenous communities to regain management of the 380,000 square kilometers after having been removed from the land 100 years ago.
While the agreement—and level of necessary collaboration—itself is historic, the unique funding model to support the agreement is also noteworthy. The agreement, known as NWT: Our Land for the Future, provides $375 million to support Indigenous-led conservation and stewardship activities, including the establishment of new protected and conserved areas, Guardian programs, ecotourism, traditional economic activities and climate research, among others. The deal combines $300 million from the federal government with $75 million from private donors, using a funding model inspired by practices employed by Wall Street executives.
To reach this landmark agreement, signatories used an innovative approach to conservation finance known as project finance for permanence, or PFP. This innovative funding model was developed in 2011 by a group of investment bankers, management consultants, and conservationists, with the intention of providing a more sustainable approach to long-term, large-scale conservation and stewardship. Based on approaches common in private industry, the PFP model brings partners together around a shared conservation goal; partners collaboratively identify plans, funding, and policy changes necessary to sustain the goal’s long-term success—and then leverages both private and public funds to secure full commitment of funding upfront at the closing of the deal.
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Additional Landscape Conservation & Stewardship News | |
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Blogpost from Trust for Public Land highlights the Penobscot Nation’s Wáhsehtәkw land return project and the restoring of nearly 30,000 acres to the Tribe in what will be the largest land return between a US nonprofit and a Tribal Nation.
Learn more
The New England Governors and Eastern Canadian Premiers sign a new resolution reaffirming their commitment to collaborate across borders on ecological connectivity, climate adaptation, and biodiversity conservation.
Learn more
Story in The Narwhal traces a tour of the grasslands of northern North America, capturing how Indigenous communities are working to rematriate Buffalo and restore lands and cultures.
Read the story
As salmon migrate to the Upper Klamath Basin for the first time in more than a century, Yurok Tribe’s Fisheries Department advances a massive revegetation project behind the former Klamath dams.
Learn more
Where fire back means land back: Story from Next City describes how the Cow Creek Band of Umpqua Tribe of Indians, located in southern Oregon, is blending Western science with Traditional Ecological Knowledge to safely reintroduce fire on ancestral lands that the Tribe has reacquired in the last two decades.
Read the story
New story map from the Department of the Interior highlights how the Department’s Restoration and Resilience Framework is making historic investments to catalyze coordination and drive transformational outcomes in restoring lands and waters and building climate resilience.
Explore the storymap
Considering a “nature market” to finance the restoration and preservation of biodiversity: Voluntary standards for biodiversity credits introduced at the United Nation’s COP 16 biodiversity conference in Columbia last month, calling for such credits to be used locally to compensate like-for-like habitat loss rather than in a global offset exchange.
Learn more
Article from The Narwhal highlights how the National Guardian Network—Canada’s first Indigenous-led national stewardship network—is reinventing the system for distributing federal funds to support Indigenous-led environmental stewardship across Canada.
Read the article
Article from the Pew Charitable Trusts highlights the growing momentum behind wildlife crossings, and the continued opportunity to accelerate such efforts to build transportation infrastructure that is safer for humans while also restoring and connecting wildlife populations.
Read the article
The largest conservation easement in South Carolina history will conserve 62,000 acres and offer recreation, environmental, and economic benefits in the nation’s “wood basket.”
Learn more
New report focusing on New York State highlights the tremendous value of state parks and the many ways that they positively impact people and communities.
Explore the report
Storytelling at a landscape scale: New documentary, Monarch Ultra, follows a group of ultramarathoners chronicling the path of monarch butterfly migration, drawing attention to the environmental destruction that threatens biodiversity.
Find out more
Upcoming Sentinel Landscape designation cycle: The Sentinel Landscape Partnership is preparing to announce the 2026 Sentinel Landscape designation cycle in early 2025, as it continues to grow the network of 18 current Sentinel Landscapes.
Learn more about the upcoming cycle or learn more about the Sentinel Landscapes Program
A new National Academies report on restoration in the Everglades acknowledges a lack of meaningful engagement with Tribes—Miccosukee and Seminole—and reveals that federal and state agencies are beginning to recognize and incorporate the value of Indigenous knowledge.
Explore the report
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Landscape Conservation & Stewardship Job Board
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Communications and Development Manager, First Nations National Guardians Network
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Development Director, Northeast Wilderness Trust
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Stewardship Director, Northeast Wilderness Trust
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Professor of Collaborative Practice in Natural Resources, University of Wyoming
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Executive Director, InterTribal Buffalo Council
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Watershed Coordinator, Aravaipa Watershed Conservation Alliance
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Vice President, Land & Habitat Conservation, Defenders of Wildlife
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Various Positions, Buffalo Nations Grasslands Alliance
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Policy Director, Tulyome
Learn More
This section of the Landscape Conservation Bulletin is intended to be a space to share job postings that will be specifically relevant to landscape conservation and stewardship practitioners. We welcome submissions: if your organization would like to widely distribute a posting please be in touch.
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Webinars & Additional Resources
The Cornell Lab’s Land Trust Bird Conservation Initiative grant program will award land trusts around $260,000 to as many as 14 projects in 2025. The RFP opens the first week of January with applications due March 1, and funds dispersed in May. To learn more and apply for a grant, visit the Request for Proposals.
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Collective Power to Transform Systems Workshop
Tuesday, December 10, 2024
Collective Impact Forum
Backbone Leadership is Different Workshop
Tuesday, December 17, 2024
Collective Impact Forum
Partnering with Companies to Advance Collective Impact
Podcast
Collective Impact Forum
Virtual + Interactive Facilitation Skills Program
Institute for Conservation Leadership
2024 Winter sessions
NatureConnect
NatureConnect is a diverse suite of services, tools, and workshops offered by the Center for Large Landscape Conservation to help partners achieve connectivity and landscape conservation goals.
Connectivity 101
A free, online course developed by the Center for Large Landscape Conservation and partners in the Wildlife Connect Initiative with technical support from UNDP Learning for Nature. Conservation professionals and other interested parties can now register for the course to learn about conserving and restoring ecological connectivity to support a healthy planet.
Designing Nature's Half: The Landscape Conservation Podcast
Every two weeks, your hosts sit down with thought leaders, innovators, conservationists, and scientists to raise awareness, inspire dialogue, and encourage engagement in designing sustainable and resilient landscapes before it’s too late. Large landscape conservation is complex, but Designing Nature’s Half breaks the conversation into manageable pieces for novices and experts alike.
Conservation Finance Boot Camp Short Course
Following cancellation of the 2020 Conservation Finance Boot Camp, the Conservation Finance Network compiled a 4-part video short course, which is available via the above link.
America Adapts: The Climate Change Podcast
A weekly podcast that explores the challenges presented by adapting to climate change and the approaches the field's best minds believe are already working.
Recordings of past webinars of the Connected Conservation webinar series are available on the National Park Service Connected Conservation website.
Recordings of past NLC Landscape Conservation in Action webinars are available on the Network's Landscape Conservation in Action Webinar Series page.
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The Network for Landscape Conservation is the community of practice for practitioners advancing collaborative, cross-boundary conservation as an essential approach to protect nature, culture, and community in the 21st Century.
Contributions of news, upcoming events, resources, and job postings for future Bulletins are welcomed. We also welcome inquires for potential future "Perspectives: Landscapes Conservation in Action" stories; please be in touch if you are interested in sharing stories and insights from your work.
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The Network for Landscape Conservation is a fiscally sponsored project of the Center for Large Landscape Conservation, P.O. Box 1587, Bozeman, MT 59771
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