Landscape-scale Conservation Planning

by Stephen C. Trombulak (Editor), Robert Baldwin (Editor)

Hugh P. Possingham Landscape-scale conservation planning is coming of age. In the last couple of decades, conservation practitioners, working at all levels of governance and all spatial scales, have embraced the CARE principles of conservation planning – Comprehensiveness, Adequacy, Representativeness, and Efficiency. Hundreds of papers have been written on this theme, and several different kinds of software program have been developed and used around the world, making conservation planning based on these principles global in its reach and influence. Does this mean that all the science of conservation planning is over – that the discovery phase has been replaced by an engineering phase as we move from defining the rules to implementing them in the landscape? This book and the continuing growth in the literature suggest that the answer to this question is most definitely ‘no. ’ All of applied conservation can be wrapped up into a single what should be done (the action), in what place, at what time, using what mechanism, and for what outcome (the objective). It all seems pretty simple – what, where, when, how and why. However stating a problem does not mean it is easy to solve.

440 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2010

Reviews

[Greg · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Landscape-scale Conservation Planning” is an edited multi-author volume with 18 chapters. It describes many aspects of the best practices and challenges of trying to conserve ecosystems and the species that depend upon them at large spatial scales crossing numerous ownership and management boundaries. Almost all of the papers focus on work that was done in the northeastern USA and Canadian Maritime region. In many respects this is a good thing as it allows the reader to view relationships and interactions between different aspects of conservation planning across the same geographic region. However, it also gives the book something of a parochial character that may lessen its utility and interest for some readers. The publisher’s description of the book that I read before acquiring it didn’t make this geographic scope at all clear and actually may have kept me from picking it up had I known that going in, but it is a very good book and I certainly don’t regret having invested the time in it. As is typically the case with an edited volume like this, the value of any given chapter will depend a lot on a given reader’s interests. I think my favorite was probably Chapter 10 by Jansujwicz and Calhoun, which provided a critical evaluation of the role of multi-stakeholder collaboration in land-use planning and presented both its advantages and potential drawbacks. I appreciated the departure in tone from the sort of “happy talk” that tends to dominate the literature around this type of planning initiative. Chapter 3 by E.D. Baldwin and R.W. Judd recounting the role of regional history in the failure of a large-scale conservation initiative in Maine was also really interesting.

[Sarah Clement · Rating 3 out of 5]

My PhD involves landscape-scale biodiversity conservation and institutional arrangements, so I was very excited to find this book. I have to admit, however, that this book still left me with a lot of "why yes, but how???" questions. Of course landscape-scale conservation requires a legitimate planning process that involves all relevant stakeholders, engages experts (and actually listens to them), has good leaders and facilitators, etc. These things are all obvious, and I am sure the authors recognise this. I understand why they emphasise such things...we still aren't doing them right. However, I was hoping for a bit more from this book, both in terms of offering innovative solutions and practical information about reforming our systems to cope with this scale of planning. The book is a good resource for providing case study examples, and it may help people that are on the practitioner and management side of things, but for my work it wasn't particularly useful beyond a very high, general level. That said, the book is clear, well-written, well-organised, and covers a good range of topics.