Incorporate existing theory in landscape ecology, mathematics, and other disciplines to establish research frameworks, methods, and tools with broad consensus among conservation planning practitioners.

Identify, explore, and create solutions for the most important analytical challenges in conservation planning, strategy development, and implementation.

Identify information gaps that inhibit effective wildlife conservation in regions of interest and develop strategies to fill those gaps.

Provide state-of-the-art leadership in archival for geospatial and other data for conservation planning programs.

Conduct training workshops to build capacity among other researchers and stakeholders in the Y2Y region for implementing standardized analytical tools in their work.

Ensure adoption of tools, methods, and base data by the conservation planning community. To do this the Center will provide, at no cost, the most accurate base data layers (landcover, roads, structures, etc.) and the most effective and reliable tools and methods on-line.
We will augment this by disseminating results through white papers, presentations, popular articles, a book, and by demonstrating through our own Conservation Planning projects, that the system produces effective results.

Center Objectives

We have identified 16 areas of focus. The first 13 areas will be addressed by Fellows and other experts to develop standards and methods. The subsequent three items will disseminate the results:

Improve landcover data:

Determine appropriate focal species:

Map terrestrial habitat cores:

Map terrestrial connectivity habitat:

Map aquatic priority drainages:

Map critical bird habitat:

Develop optimal, cost-effective solutions:

Ensure viability of populations and metapopulations:

Integrate conservation planning with local self-sustaining human economies:

Integrate conservation planning across multiple scales:

Integrate conservation planning with projected trends in land-use:

Integrate conservation planning with projected trends in climate change:

Develop and maintain a secure data repository:

Conduct Expert Workshops to gather interdisciplinary teams of experts:

Conduct Training Workshops for the broader conservation community:

Conduct Outreach Workshops for the general public, political decision-makers, and the media.