Tracking Net Landscape Change: Needs, Opportunities, and Challenges from Joint Venture and Landscape Conservation Cooperative Perspectives

Joint Ventures (JVs) and Landscape Conservation Cooperatives (LCCs) are self-directed partnerships tasked with doing science-based conservation. Most JVs and LCCs have adopted Strategic Habitat Conservation (SHC) as the overarching conservation framework under which they operate.  One characteristic of SHC is spatial prioritization of conservation opportunities to achieve specific objectives. These decision support tools rely on accurate assessments of habitat conditions at multiple spatial scales reflective of the scales at which the ecological processes that affect conservation opportunity operate. Given the primary focus of JVs and LCCs on identifying landscape-level priorities, a premium has been placed on accurate and current landcover. Landcover is an almost universal input for species-habitat models that allow us to predict species occurrence. Seamless and comprehensive landcover data would ideally allow interpolation of these models to broader scales. Similarly, landcover datasets that were regularly updated using consistent classification schemes would enable conservation planners to track progress towards conservation objectives and to easily update models to ensure they reflect the most current priorities. Increasingly, planners are seeking to proactively address landscape stressors through scenario planning. Tracking net landscape change allows planners to evaluate over time which scenarios are more realistic and deserve more weight in the prioritization of conservation opportunities. In this talk, we will provide specific examples of how JV and LCCs are currently using landcover data to address these needs and also provide insight into some of the challenges and opportunities in addressing these needs with current and emerging technologies.