June 10, 11am ET: SE CASC Science Seminar on Lessons Learned from the Southeast Conservation Adaptation Strategy

This summer, the SE CASC is hosting a virtual science seminar series highlighting SE CASC supported projects supporting resource management actions across the Southeast. Each month a SE CASC researcher will provide an overview of their work and the management implications of their research findings. Learn more about the SE CASC Summer Science Seminar Series here.

Lessons for Landscape-scale Conservation Learned from the Southeast Conservation Adaptation Strategy
Nils Peterson, North Carolina State University
June 10 | 11AM ET
View a recording of the seminar. Due to an emergency, co-author Kathryn Jewell presented this webinar.

Webinar Overview:
Since 2011, the Southeast Conservation Adaptation Strategy (SECAS) partnership has pursued its goal of measurably improving the health, function, and connectivity of Southeastern ecosystems. To ensure the partnership’s governance structure facilitates progress toward this vision and goal, the SECAS Steering Committee requested an assessment of the partnership. In this webinar I summarize key insights from the resulting assessment supported by SECAS and the Southeast Climate Adaptation Science Center. The report was based on interviews with SECAS participants and a literature review and case studies focused on identifying best practices for structuring collaborative landscape scale partnerships like those SECAS facilitates. SECAS was considered successful by collaborators who had several recommendations for ensuring success of regional conservation efforts in the future. These recommendations included: developing a succession plan for SECAS leadership, communicating its purpose more broadly within partner organizations, and expanding points of contact within partner organizations. I will conclude by reviewing how these emerging priorities for SECAS fit more broadly within priorities for wildlife management agencies in Southeast.
Learn more about the Speaker:
Dr. Nils Peterson is a Professor of Fisheries, Wildlife, and Conservation Biology at NC State University, and Principal Investigator of the Southeast Climate Adaptation Science Center. His research focuses on unraveling the drivers of environmental behavior, particularly behaviors impacting biodiversity conservation initiatives. Most of his research uses environmental education, environmental conflict, and environmental policy making as natural experiments to test hypotheses about conservation behaviors. For more information about his research program, see his web page or Google scholar profile.

2020-21 Global Change Fellow, Kathryn Jewell was involved in the research and development of this new report, SECAS FUTURES: Structuring Governance to Achieve Landscape-scale Conservation Outcomes. For an overview of the methods used and information contained within this publication, read this SE CASC blogpost written by Kathryn Jewell.