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Overwhelming evidence points to the importance of maintaining connectivity given rapidly fragmenting habitats and climate change. Many efforts to identify where ecological corridors should be placed are based on estimates of structural connectivity that take advantage of readily available land-cover data. We provide an overview of structural connectivity methodology and review the various limitations of these methods for functional connectivity -- the degree to which corridors facilitate the movement of organisms. These limitations include not accounting for dispersal complexities and specific habitat requirements of focal species, and invisible barriers to movement. Also, to what extent will the resulting corridors serve the most vulnerable species under a rapidly changing climate? We describe several connectivity-modeling approaches designed to be climate-wise. Assessing species for traits that may make them more susceptible to extinction is one way to prioritize which species warrant additional data collection and demographic analyses to improve the likelihood that corridors will function for them. There is substantial evidence that traits such as limited movement or dispersal ability as well as geographic range and habitat restrictions make species more vulnerable. Therefore, we suggest using these traits to guide focal-species selection. Finally, we discuss the importance of employing new technologies to monitor individual movement and species utilization of corridors varying in width and other characteristics to help plan and verify functional connectivity for these species.

Founded in 1993, the Yellowstone to Yukon (Y2Y) vision was one of the earliest large‐landscape conservation visions. Despite growing recognition of large‐landscape conservation strategies, there have been few tests to date of conservation gains achieved through such approaches. We tested for conservation gains in the Y2Y region of North America following initiation of the Y2Y conservation vision in 1993 using a counterfactual spatiotemporal comparison and tracking change in five different conservation metrics. First, we enumerated the area of land within Y2Y in designated protected areas. We then compared the rate of change of protected area growth before‐ and after‐initiation of Y2Y in 1993 and to two adjacent counterfactual regions. Protected areas in the Y2Y grew by 7.8%, increasing by 107,289 km2, exceeding the Aichi target of 17% of the area under protection by 2018. More importantly, the rate of protected area growth increased 90% following initiation of the Y2Y large‐landscape conservation vision in 1993, whereas protected area growth declined in adjacent regions, or remained constant throughout North America. Sustained growth in protected areas and private land conservation was complemented by expansion of endangered grizzly bears in the U.S. portion of Y2Y, the greatest global expansion from zero to at least 117 wildlife road‐crossing structures and growing mainstreaming coverage of the Y2Y vision. Our counterfactual comparison provides valuable evidence that large‐landscape conservation strategies such as Y2Y can enhance protected area growth and other conservation metrics. We conclude that large‐landscape conservation strategies may be a useful model for achieving global large‐landscape conservation and biodiversity conservation targets.

Author(s): Oppler, Gabriel; Hilty, Jodi A.; Laur, Aaron T.; Tabor, Gary | Abstract: The theory and practice of connectivity conservation have matured, and we are now at the point where intentional, landscape-scale ecological networks are poised to play an indispensable role in the drive to protect and conserve at least 30% of the Earth’s lands and waters by 2030. Clearly, achieving the “30x30” goal is an urgent matter as a big step toward what nature needs. The stark conclusions of the latest IPCC report leave no doubt that the 2020s will be a decisive decade for the planet, and there is broad scientific agreement that the biodiversity and climate change emergencies must be met in tandem. For conservationists, this means scaling up both our thinking and our ambitions. While formal protected areas and other effective area-based conservation measures (OECMs; also referred to as “conserved areas”) form the bedrock of conservation, equally important are the connections between and among these areas. The featured theme papers in this issue of Parks Stewardship Forum explain recent advances in connectivity conservation, spelling out what has to happen to hit the 30x30 target, exploring how science and policy are aligning to support the livelihoods of local communities and human rights while contributing to global environmental conservation goals, and providing concrete examples of where and how landscape-scale conservation can be applied to meet the challenges of our time.

Author(s): Hilty, Jodi A.; Laur, Aaron T. | Abstract: Ecological connectivity is defined by the United Nations Convention on Migratory Species to be “[t]he unimpeded movement of species and the flow of natural processes that sustain life on Earth.” To conserve these vital links within and across ecosystems and political boundaries, scientists, policymakers, and practitioners around the world are increasing and combining their efforts to provide consistent and focused solutions. The most recent Protected Planet Report reveals that 7.84% of terrestrial protected areas are connected to each other. This remains far short of the stated target of connecting the over 17% of the planet that is now officially protected in one way or another. Much more effort is also required to maintain, enhance, and restore ecological connectivity across the matrix of human uses outside of such areas. The importance of conserving ecological connectivity to protect biodiversity, increase resilience to climate change, and provide the host of other benefits that humans receive from nature is clear and actionable as science and policy align to support the livelihoods of local communities while contributing to global environmental conservation goals.

Migration of ungulates (hooved mammals) is a fundamental ecological process that promotes abundant herds, whose effects cascade up and down terrestrial food webs. Migratory ungulates provide the prey base that maintains large carnivore and scavenger populations and underpins terrestrial biodiversity (fig. S1). When ungulates move in large aggregations, their hooves, feces, and urine create conditions that facilitate distinct biotic communities. The migrations of ungulates have sustained humans for thousands of years, forming tight cultural links among Indigenous people and local communities. Yet ungulate migrations are disappearing at an alarming rate (1). Efforts by wildlife managers and conservationists are thwarted by a singular challenge: Most ungulate migrations have never been mapped in sufficient detail to guide effective conservation. Without a strategic and collaborative effort, many of the world's great migrations will continue to be truncated, severed, or lost in the coming decades. Fortunately, a combination of animal tracking datasets, historical records, and local and Indigenous knowledge can form the basis for a global atlas of migrations, designed to support conservation action and policy at local, national, and international levels.

En ecosistemas terrestres, dulceacuícolas y marinos, los corredores ecológicos son una designación de conservación necesaria para asegurar la salud de los ecosistemas. Los corredores son elementos fundamentales de las redes ecológicas para la conservación y complementan los objetivos de las áreas protegidas y OMEC al conectar estos hábitats con otras áreas naturales intactas. Estos lineamientos responden a la creciente demanda por la conectividad que han manifestado académicos, tomadores de decisiones y profesionales de la conservación. Los ecosistemas bien conectados apoyan una serie de funciones ecológicas, incluyendo la migración, ciclos de agua y de nutrientes, polinización, dispersión de semillas, seguridad alimentaria, resiliencia frente al clima y resistencia a enfermedades. Estos lineamientos ofrecen orientación sobre cómo conservar los valores de la conectividad en diferentes contextos de la conservación de forma consistente y medible. Los 25 estudios de caso de estos lineamientos ofrecen ejemplos y buenas prácticas que muestran algunos enfoques que pueden asegurar la conectividad ecológica entre diferentes ecosistemas y especies a diferentes escalas espaciales y temporales. Para asegurar la integración y aceleración de la adopción de las medidas de conservación de la conectividad con el fin de amortiguar y promover la adaptación al cambio climático, es necesario enfatizar las capacidades humanas y técnicas.

La connectivité écologique est le mouvement sans entrave des espèces et le flux des processus naturels qui soutiennent la vie sur Terre. Il est impérieux que les pays du monde entier s’orientent vers une approche globale et cohérente de la conservation de la connectivité écologique, et qu’ils entreprennent de mesurer et de contrôler l’efficacité des efforts déployés en ce sens pour ainsi établir des réseaux écologiques fonctionnels. Pour favoriser l’atteinte de ces objectifs, les présentes lignes directrices présentent les corridors écologiques comme des moyens de recenser, de préserver, d’améliorer et de restaurer la connectivité; synthétisant un volume important de données scientifiques connexes; et formulent des recommandations concernant les moyens d’officialiser les corridors et les réseaux écologiques.

Connectivity conservation is essential for managing healthy ecosystems, conserving biodiversity and adapting to climate change across all biomes and spatial scales. Well-connected ecosystems support a diversity of ecological functions such as migration, hydrology, nutrient cycling, pollination, seed dispersal, food security, climate resilience and disease resistance. These Guidelines are based on the best available science and practice for maintaining, enhancing and restoring ecological connectivity among and between protected areas, other effective areas based conservation measures (OECMs) and other intact ecosystems. For the first time, this publication introduces a common definition and recommends formal recognition of ecological corridors to serve as critical building blocks of ecological networks in conjunction with protected areas and OECMs. Furthermore, these Guidelines also include 25 case studies that demonstrate current approaches to conserving ecological connectivity and ecological networks for different ecosystems and species, and at different spatial and temporal scales.

The need for connectivity across large areas has long been a core principle in the field of conservation biology. Whereas early rationales for conserving connectivity included the maintenance of genetic health and the protection of ecosystem processes, the more recently recognized threat posed by climate change to biodiversity has only amplified the focus on connectivity. Within the last decade, the term “large landscape conservation” has become a generic term applied to efforts intended to align on-the-ground conservation programs with the scale of the potential changes resulting from climate change. An early example of such an approach was the Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative (Y2Y), spanning the Rocky Mountains between Canada and the United States. First conceived in the early 1990s, Y2Y connoted not only a region, but also a science & advocacy network, a conservation organization, and—particularly in its early years—a challenge to the conservation community to broaden its vision of what will be required for effective wildlife conservation over the coming century. This includes consideration of how, under conditions of climate change, biological communities may disarticulate and then reorganize across time and space, and of the consequent need for intact land conservation networks to allow species to move through increasingly human-occupied landscapes. Accordingly, a key aspect of the programmatic work under Y2Y focuses on protecting ecologically intact landscapes as a core approach to effective biodiversity conservation. Today, Y2Y has become widely cited for its groundbreaking efforts to expand the conceptual scale of effective conservation landscapes in North America and the world.

Climate change threatens all forms of life. Urgent responses in the form of adaptation strategies are one way that biodiversity and human communities might withstand the coming disruptions. Mountainous landscapes are particularly suited to adaptation responses because of the diversity of habitats they provide for many species within relatively small areas. Yellowstone to Yukon (Y2Y) is a mountainous region within which a network of agencies, organizations, indigenous groups, and communities is promoting and implementing a vision designed to anticipate and enable climate adaptation. The Crown Conservation Initiative provides a specific example of the finer-scale application of climate adaptation strategies within the Y2Y region.

The World Heritage Convention could make a bigger and more systematic contribution to global wilderness conservation by: (1) ensuring the World Heritage List includes full coverage of Earth's wilderness areas with outstanding universal value and (2) more effectively protecting the ecological integrity of existing World Heritage sites. Here, we assess current coverage of global-scale wilderness areas within natural World Heritage sites and identify broad gaps where new wilderness sites should be identified for inclusion in the World Heritage List. We also consider how existing mechanisms under the Convention can improve the ecological integrity of existing sites by expanding or buffering them, and by promoting connectivity between World Heritage sites, between World Heritage sites and other protected areas, or both. We suggest that the Convention should consider a new mechanism called a “World Heritage Wilderness Complex” to facilitate a wilderness approach. Finally, we map three landscapes and one seascape to illustrate how World Heritage Wilderness Complexes might be implemented.

We examined the impacts of exurban development on bird communities in Essex County, New York and Madison County, Montana by comparing differences in abundance of songbirds between subdivisions and control sites in both regions. We hypothesized that impacts to bird communities would be greater in the relatively homogeneous, closed canopy Adirondack forest of northern New York State than they would be in the more naturally heterogeneous grasslands interspersed with trees and shrubs of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. We examined birds in five functional groups expected to be responsive to exurban development, and determined relative abundance within subdivisions and control sites across these two distinct regions. We found little support for our hypothesis. For birds in the area-sensitive, low nesting, and Neotropical migrant functional groups, relative abundance was lower in subdivisions in the Adirondacks and in Madison County, while relative abundance of edge specialists was greater in subdivisions in both regions. The direction and magnitude of change in the avian communities between subdivisions and controls was similar in both regions for all guilds except microhabitat specialists. These similarities across diverse ecosystems suggest that the ecological context of the encompassing region may be less important than other elements in shaping avian communities in exurban systems. This finding suggests that humans and their specific behaviors and activities in exurban areas may be underappreciated but potentially important drivers of change in these regions.

Effective conservation of biological diversity on private lands will require changes in land-use policy and development practice. Conservation development (CD) is an alternative form of residential development in which homes are built on smaller lots and clustered together and the remainder of the property is permanently protected for conservation purposes. We assessed the degree to which CD is permitted and encouraged by local land-use regulations in 414 counties in the western United States. Thirty-two percent of local planning jurisdictions have adopted CD ordinances, mostly within the past 10 years. CD ordinances were adopted in counties with human population densities that were 3.0 times greater and in counties with 2.5 times more land use at urban, suburban, and exurban densities than counties without CD ordinances. Despite strong economic incentives for CD (e.g., density bonuses, which allow for a mean of 66% more homes to be built per subdivision area), several issues may limit the effectiveness of CD for biological diversity conservation. Although most CD ordinances required a greater proportion of the site area be protected than in a typical residential development, just 13% (n = 17) of the ordinances required an ecological site analysis to identify and map features that should be protected. Few CD ordinances provided guidelines regarding the design and configuration of the protected lands, including specifying a minimum size for protected land parcels or encouraging contiguity with other protected lands within or near to the site. Eight percent (n =11) of CD ordinances encouraged consultation with a biological expert or compliance with a conservation plan. We recommend that conservation scientists help to improve the effectiveness of CD by educating planning staff and government officials regarding biological diversity conservation, volunteering for their local planning boards, or consulting on development reviews. Guias e Incentivos para el Desarrollo de la Conservacion en Regulaciones de Uso Local de Suelos Resumen La conservacion efectiva de la diversidad biologica en tierras privadas requerira cambios en las politicas de uso de suelo y practicas de desarrollo. El desarrollo de conservacion (DC) es una forma alternativa de desarrollo residencial en el cual las casas son construidas sobre lotes mas pequenos y agrupadas mientras que la propiedad restante se protege permanentemente por razones de conservacion. Estudiamos el grado hasta el cual el DC es permitido y alentado por las regulaciones de uso local de suelos en 414 condados en el oeste de los Estados Unidos. El 32% de las jurisdicciones de planeacion local han adoptado ordenanzas, en su mayoria durante los ultimos 10 anos. Las ordenanzas de DC fueron adoptadas en condados con densidades de poblaciones humanas que eran 3.0 veces mayores y en condados con 2.5 veces mas uso de suelo en densidades urbanas, suburbanas y exurbanas que en condados sin ordenanzas de DC. A pesar de los fuertes incentivos economicos para el DC (p. ej.: bonos de densidad, que permiten una media de 66% mas casas por construir por area de subdivision), varios problemas pueden limitar la efectividad del DC para la conservacion de la biodiversidad. Aunque la mayoria de las ordenanzas de DC requirieron que se protegiera una mayor proporcion del area sitio que en un desarrollo residencial tipico, 13% (n =17) de las ordenanzas requirieron un analisis de sitio ecologico para identificar y mapear rasgos que deberian ser protegidos. Pocas ordenanzas de DC proporcionaron guias con respecto al diseno y la configuracion de las tierras protegidas, incluyendo la especificacion de un tamano minimo para parcelas de suelo protegido o alentando la contiguidad con otros suelos protegidos dentro o cerca del sitio. El 8% (n =11) de las ordenanzas de DC alentaron la consulta con un experto biologico o la conformidad con el plan de conservacion. Recomendamos que cientificos de la conservacion ayuden a mejorar la efectividad del DC al educar personal de planificacion y oficiales gubernamentales con respecto a la conservacion de la biodiversidad, siendo voluntarios para sus juntas locales de planeacion o consultando resenas de desarrollo.

Large tracts of natural habitat are being replaced by agriculture and urban sprawl in Mediterranean regions worldwide. We have limited knowledge about the effects of human activities on native species in these landscapes and which, if any, management practices might enhance the conservation of native biodiversity within them. Through a citizen volunteer bird-monitoring project, we compared bird abundance and species richness in northern Californian riparian zones surrounded by vineyards, urban areas, and natural areas. We assessed both local and landscape-level variables that may enhance native bird diversity in each land use type. We also demonstrate a new statistical approach, generalized estimating equations, to analyze highly variable data, such as that collected by volunteers. Avian abundance was highly correlated with both landscape context and local habitat variables, while avian richness was correlated with local habitat variables, specifically shrub richness, and percent of tree cover. In particular, shrub species richness has a strong positive correlation with riparian-preferring bird species. This suggests that active local management of riparian zones in human-dominated landscapes can increase our ability to retain native bird species in these areas.

To address increasing fragmentation, conservation biologists have focused on protecting core habitat areas and maintaining connectivity among protected areas. Wildlife corridors, strips of relatively intact habitat designed to connect habitat fragments, may enhance connectivity, but little empirical evidence supports the idea that large mammals prefer to use corridors rather than the surrounding developed landscape. In Sonoma County, a premium wine-grape-growing region in California, we examined mammalian predator use of 21 riparian corridors classified as denuded, narrow, or wide according to the width of the remaining natural vegetation adjacent to the creek. We used unbaited, remotely triggered cameras to determine occurrence of predator species. We also monitored predator use of six vineyards, three close to core habitat and three far from core habitat, with unbaited cameras. Mammalian predator detection rates were 11-fold higher in riparian study areas than in vineyards. More native mammalian predator species were found in wide corridors than in narrow or denuded creek corridors. The number and activity level of native predators was higher in vineyards adjacent to core habitat than in vineyards farther away, where the number and activity level of non-native predators was higher. Maintaining wide and well-vegetated riparian corridors may be important in maintaining the connectivity of native predator populations to ensure their long-term survival.

More than half of the land in the United States is privately owned. Private lands harbor a great amount of biodiversity, including at least some habitat for 95% of the federally listed species in the United States. It is important to conduct conservation biology research on private lands, but our review of the litera- ture indicates that few conservation-oriented field studies are conducted on private property. Based on our success in obtaining permission to conduct research on 43 land parcels in Sonoma County, California, we de- veloped methods to enhance a conservation biologist's chance of obtaining permission to work on private lands. We provide guidelines for researchers to conduct studies successfully on private land with the goal of improving access, data collection, and relationships with private landowners. We also discuss constraints re- searchers face, such as designing studies appropriate for working on privately owned parcels. In light of the importance of these lands to biodiversity conservation, greater effort should be made to conduct research on private lands.

Maintaining healthy ecosystems is a prerequisite for conserving biodiversity. The complex nature of ecosystems often necessitates the use of indicator taxa to monitor ecosystem health. However, ambiguous selection criteria and the use of inappropriate taxa have brought the utility of indicator taxa under question. This review compiles existing selection criteria from the literature, evaluates inconsistencies among these criteria, and proposes a step-wise selection process. In addition, 100 vertebrate and 32 invertebrate taxa documented in the conservation science literature as indicators of ecosystem health are examined to assess how well they adhere to the referenced criteria. Few vertebrate taxa fulfill multiple criteria, as most are highly mobile generalists that lack established tolerance levels and correlations with ecosystem changes. Most suggested invertebrate taxa also lack correlations to ecosystem changes, but satisfy other selection criteria. However, invertebrate taxa are often suggested at high taxonomic levels, encompassing many species, making it diAcult to measure specific attributes, and potentially including many unnecessary and even inappropriate species. # 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

Working in more than seventy landscapes and seascapes around the world, the Wildlife Conservation Society is but one example of many institutions working to bring about conservation at the large scape level (see extended definition of scape in chap. 1). Many of these locations face serious and imminent threats that, if left unresolved, will lead to the loss of the wild areas and wildlife within them forever. For example, the Western Ghats region of India—essentially, the mountain range running parallel to the country’s southwestern coast—is one of those scapes where rising human population pressures translate into expanding impacts including agricultural expansion, road development, livestock grazing, and habitat fragmentation. It is an all too familiar panoply of threats, but one that conservationists have no choice but to face head on. Quite simply, if conservationists are to ensure that populations of globally imperiled tigers (Panthera tigris), Asian elephants (Elaphus maximus), and other rare species maintain their stronghold in this region, they must bring immediate attention and redress to these threats.

Across a vast array of human endeavors, climate change is demanding fundamental re-consideration of past approaches — be it in applied research on agricultural technologies, policy setting on water distribution, long-range planning for natural disasters, and so on. The list is long, and the arena of biodiversity conservation is no exception.

Purpose – The purpose is to show that the influx of new seasonal and year-round residents to the small towns located in and around protected areas has numerous implications for governance associated with land management and regional planning including reconciling the competing values of wilderness (amenity vs. livelihood, motorized vs. non-motorized recreation, active vs. passive land management). Methodology/approach – We use case studies from the Adirondack Park in Northern New York State and the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem in the western United States to demonstrate the land management and governance challenges facing local communities in and around internationally renowned, protected areas. Findings – We highlight how these transforming communities meet diverse needs and competing interests and how partnering with a non-governmental organization benefits local governance issues. Originality/value of chapter – The paper presents research from the United States, which theoretically and empirically contributes to the scientific discourse on exurbanization, protected areas, and governance.

Many wide-ranging mammal species have experienced significant declines over the last 200 years; restoring these species will require long-term, large-scale recovery efforts. We highlight 5 attributes of a recent range-wide vision-setting exercise for ecological recovery of the North American bison (Bison bison) that are broadly applicable to other species and restoration targets. The result of the exercise, the "Vermejo Statement" on bison restoration, is explicitly (1) large scale, (2) long term, (3) inclusive, (4) fulfilling of different values, and (5) ambitious. It reads, in part, "Over the next century, the ecological recovery of the North American bison will occur when multiple large herds move freely across extensive landscapes within all major habitats of their historic range, interacting in ecologically significant ways with the fullest possible set of other native species, and inspiring, sustaining and connecting human cultures." We refined the vision into a scorecard that illustrates how individual bison herds can contribute to the vision. We also developed a set of maps and analyzed the current and potential future distributions of bison on the basis of expert assessment. Although more than 500,000 bison exist in North America today, we estimated they occupy1% of their historical range and in no place express the full range of ecological and social values of previous times. By formulating an inclusive, affirmative, and specific vision through consultation with a wide range of stakeholders, we hope to provide a foundation for conservation of bison, and other wide-ranging species, over the next 100 years.

Intensive land use can fragment continuous natural areas into smaller patches, which may be too small to support viable populations of native fauna and more susceptible to invasion by alien species. We demonstrate the utility of combining species occurrence models with land-use change models to identify areas where future development may differentially affect wildlife. Occurrence data for native (e.g., gray fox, coyote, bobcat, mountain lion, striped skunk, raccoon) and non-native (e.g., domestic dogs, domestic cats, opossums) mammalian predators were collected from 188 remotely triggered camera locations across an oak woodland and vineyard landscape in northern California. The occurrence data were used in combination with landscape variables extracted using a geographic information system to build explanatory models of predator occurrence. These statistical models were used to derive two surfaces showing relative probability of occurrence for non-native and native predators. Then, a spatially explicit land-use change model was used to examine potential future predator distributions given potential future vineyard expansion. The probability distribution models generated hypothesized low probabilities of occurrence for native predators within large vineyard blocks, but higher probabilities within isolated vineyards and also in oak woodlands. The models suggest the highest probabilities of non-native predator occurrence fell within large blocks of vineyard. Using one possible future vineyard development scenario, the distribution models illustrate areas where probability of native predator occurrence may be reduced and where non-native predators may expand due to vineyard development. This technique could be applied to prioritize acquisition of critical wildlife habitat and maintain habitat connectivity for wildlife populations.

Metadata only record This article details the principles of Community Based Natural Resource Management (CBNRM) and how it combines conservation and rural development, meeting the needs of both wildlife populations and human communities. The use of natural resources and maintenance of biodiversity can be complementary, especially when viewed against the larger losses to biodiversity caused by transforming natural habitats into cultivated lands. But maintenance of biodiversity can have costs for human communities. Local people often view wild animals as pest who destroy crops, raid granaries, and sometimes cause loss of life. This article explores these two sides and explores the links between villagers and scientists. Available in SANREM office, FS