Great Northern Landscape Conservation Cooperative Science Plan, 2015-2019
5 Year Science Plan
Dates
Release Date
2014-10
Summary
The purpose of the Great Northern Landscape Conservation Cooperative (GNLCC) Science Plan is to provide a framework and explain the process for identifying science priorities in the context of landscape conservation which drives annual workplans. The GNLCC Science Plan builds off the Governance Charter and Strategic Conservation Framework (Chambers et al. 2013) to achieve landscape goals through an adaptive management approach. The GNLCC Science Plan describes: ● ecological relationships among conservation targets, threats, and actions as they relate to overall goals and vision ● a process for setting desired condition and quantifiable objectives for conservation targets and their use as a metric for progress ● how to assess conservation [...]
Summary
The purpose of the Great Northern Landscape Conservation Cooperative (GNLCC) Science Plan is to provide a framework and explain the process for identifying science priorities in the context of landscape conservation which drives annual workplans. The GNLCC Science Plan builds off the Governance Charter and Strategic Conservation Framework (Chambers et al. 2013) to achieve landscape goals through an adaptive management approach. The GNLCC Science Plan describes:
● ecological relationships among conservation targets, threats, and actions as they relate to overall goals and vision
● a process for setting desired condition and quantifiable objectives for conservation targets and their use as a metric for progress
● how to assess conservation actions for effectiveness towards goals
● where and how Cooperative partners contribute to and benefit from shared conservation delivery
The Science Plan aligns GNLCC’s goals and vision with standard conservation approaches and vocabularies and employs a dual-scaled approach to address those goals. The 31 Conservation Targets prioritized in the Conservation Framework will be linked to measures of ecological integrity through the development of a Landscape Integrity Index. This offers two levels of metrics that can be integrated. The Plan also suggests appropriate roles for participants (Steering Committee, Advisory Team, Science Community, Partner Forums, etc.) identified in the Governance Charter. In sum, The Science Plan sets a course for Partners to successfully develop and apply science, inform management and track progress of the GNLCC towards its collective vision and over-arching goal of Landscape Integrity.
