Landscape conservation cooperatives
They are autonomous cooperatives sponsored by the U.S. Department of the Interior and aim to develop coordinated conservation strategies applicable to large areas of land.
[1][2] While fairly new as government supported entities, the LCCs are similar to initiatives that have been started or advocated in other countries.
It has been suggested that the Adaptive Common Governance Framework, a social network supported by differing conservation stakeholders will provide the platform for building relationships, enhancing stakeholder engagement, allowing the potential partnering entities to create a working environment of adaptive co-governance.
It is believed that this interdisciplinary approach can be applied to a range of other environments, including other terrestrial biota and aquatic ecosystems, where functional habitat connectivity, non-linear response to habitat loss, and multiple economic and social benefits occur together in the same landscape.
[5] There is a clear need for policies and practices that integrate biodiversity issues into sectors outside the protected area, especially in view of the local authorities’ extensive decentralization of land use decisions.
Therefore, people must develop systematic (target-driven) protection planning products that are both user-friendly and useful to users, and are applicable to local government officials, consultants, and elected decision makers.
Through the systematic conservation planning assessment of subtropical jungle biomes in South Africa, implementation opportunities and constraints are considered from the outset to work with stakeholders to develop products (maps and guides) that can be used for local government land use planning.
The map was further explained to municipal decision makers through the corresponding land use guidelines for each type of conservation status.
Within 18 months of producing these products, the evidence that maps and their guidelines are effectively integrated or mainstreamed into land-use planning is encouraging.
Currently, six technical working groups – permafrost, coastal processes, climate simulation, hydrology, Arctic biology and geospatial data – provide input for the development of the Arctic LCC Science Program, which will guide future project financing strategies.
[6] As the area covered by natural ecosystems decreases, the protection of tropical biodiversity in agricultural landscapes becomes even more important.
In turn, agro-ecological management influenced by farmers' livelihood strategies and types of cooperation directly affects the composition of the shady canopy.
The LCC system is very broad in space and is well suited to applied science to achieve these outcomes: (a) the layout of core protected areas, (b) creating network connectivity to address climate change, and (c) assessing land-use vulnerability changes, (d) combine social constraints with biodiversity and ecosystem services goals, and (e) compare options.
LCC Science is conducted by conservation scientists from academic institutions, private companies and NGOs.
However, these are difficult to maintain because there are no federally-managed cooperatives to fund and organize the required spatially clear data to help prioritize regional protection spending.
When rural information centers focus on the entire landscape, species and ecosystems, ecological processes, human impacts and interests, and priorities for time and space actions, they often plan (if implemented) to protect the country's biodiversity.
Around April 2019, the Trump administration reportedly withdrew LCC funding, against the instructions of Congress, causing 16 of the 22 LCCs to close or enter hiatus.
