Landscape Conservation Design: A review and synthesis of approaches taken by LCCs in the east

Co-authors: John Tirpak, Gulf Coastal Plains & Ozarks Landscape Conservation Cooperative; Frank Thompson, USDA Forest Service Northern Research Station

Landscape Conservation Cooperatives (LCC) are networks of people planning and managing landscapes to sustain natural and cultural resources.  Landscape Conservation Design (LCD) is emerging as a primary approach to achieve this vision, however, integration of LCD with other planning efforts and products, within or across LCC boundaries, is a challenge. We reviewed and synthesized information on LCD to understand challenges for LCD and propose solutions. We found multiple definitions of LCD and that LCD broadly overlapped with the Biological Planning and Conservation Design elements of Strategic Habitat Conservation (SHC), which resulted in diverse perceptions of what constitutes LCD objectives, products, and outcomes. We suggest that LCD extends SHC to the landscape level and expands SHC by broadening the objectives from species and their habitats to ecosystems and landscape attributes. The outputs, or products, of the LCD and SHC processes are similar (e.g., priority areas for conservation actions, with supporting maps, tools and documentation), but the means and methods by which conservation and management actions are implemented in LCD may differ substantially from SHC due to different objectives. In highlighting the unique attributes of LCD, we provide a general framework and terminology such that LCD may be effectively integrated within and among Landscape Conservation Cooperatives.