How Landscape Conservation Partnerships Are Working to Address Climate Change

Land conservation – defined as land protection, restoration and stewardship – can be used to address climate change both by mitigating greenhouse gas emissions and by helping human and natural communities adapt to the changes caused by global warming. To be most effective, land conservation strategies dealing with climate change need to be implemented at scale and typically require collaboration among many partners who need to work together to overcome obstacles like political boundaries, uncoordinated plans, competition for funding and cultural conflicts. This paper examines the experience of collaborative partnerships in dealing with climate change. The examination draws from a recent online survey of landscape conservation partnerships, interviews with over 40 practitioners, web research, and email communications. The paper presents practices that appear to be most effective and makes recommendations that can accelerate and broaden the benefits of landscape conservation and restoration in meeting climate goals.