The National Workshop on Large Landscape Conservation

October 22 - 24, 2014

There has been increasing interest in regional landscape conservation, as it is generally acknowledged that most protected areas do not encompass the scale necessary for effective conservation, particularly in the face of climate change. To advance conservation at landscape scale, it is important to evaluate existing efforts to document outcomes and to learn and share insights. This session examines the findings of evaluations conducted on U.S. National Heritage Areas that use a regional strategy for community engagement, natural resource conservation, historic preservation, education, and economic development. The session also reviews experience from two international examples working at landscape scale: one engaging local communities in stewardship of World Heritage sites in Africa, Latin America and Asia and the other on habitat connectivity in the northeastern US and eastern Canada.

Session speakers offer multiple perspectives focusing on lessons learned in areas such as resource stewardship, community engagement, economic vitality, partnerships, and governance. As these regional geographies typically encompass a mosaic of natural areas and lived-in landscapes, case studies demonstrate successful strategies are community-based, integrate natural and cultural heritage, encompass social and economic goals, and employ new models of governance through partnership networks. Extending conservation across the larger landscape requires an approach that integrates community development and quality of life and forges productive relationships among protected areas, local communities, and the broader regional context. In order to share key lessons on landscape scale conservation, the highlights from these presentations and the discussion will be summarized in a white paper supplemented with a bibliography