Vital Futures: Conservation Adaptation Planning for Landscape and Climate Changes in the Southeast
Dates
Acquisition
2021-01-12
Summary
The Southeast is currently undergoing high rates of population growth, urbanization, and land use change while also experiencing climatic changes. These changes are threatening, and will continue to threaten, wildlife and their habitats. Most existing conservation programs and activities, however, focus on maintaining systems in their current condition, or returning them to a historic state, rather than enabling systems to adapt to projected changes. This project was designed to support the Southeast Conservation Adaptation Strategy (SECAS) effort in developing a collaborative network of conservation partners, shared conservation goals, and regional strategies to manage fish, wildlife, and other natural resources into the future. The [...]
Summary
The Southeast is currently undergoing high rates of population growth, urbanization, and land use change while also experiencing climatic changes. These changes are threatening, and will continue to threaten, wildlife and their habitats. Most existing conservation programs and activities, however, focus on maintaining systems in their current condition, or returning them to a historic state, rather than enabling systems to adapt to projected changes. This project was designed to support the Southeast Conservation Adaptation Strategy (SECAS) effort in developing a collaborative network of conservation partners, shared conservation goals, and regional strategies to manage fish, wildlife, and other natural resources into the future. The project team conducted a detailed review and evaluation of southeastern State Wildlife Action Plans and determined that while states share a collective concern about the threat of climate change, adaptation strategies tended to be general and often vague, and 2 wildlife management goals tended to emphasize the persistence of species and habitats rather than managing for future system changes. We recommended a variety of steps to enhance cross-state and regional wildlife conservation that better accounts for future change. This included initiating a successful state-based effort to develop a list of Regional Species of Greatest Conservation Need (RSGCN). Future urban development, fire hazards, and climate shifts were mapped to demonstrate how these impact conservation goals and objectives with respect to plausible future scenarios of land and climate change impacts. Project products include reports on the assessment findings, RSGCN list, and content for the SE CASC Global Change Forum, and visualizations of scenarios of change in the Southeast.
