CNH2-S: Species conservation and collaborative governance in an era of global change

植物和动物为自然资源管理者提供了移动的目标。物种范围在不断变化，但随着气候和土地利用的持续变化，这一变化预计将在未来加速。一些物种的地位可能会在未来下降，呈现出新的管理优先事项，而另一些物种，目前是优先事项，可能会改善。这些动态条件给联邦和州机构以及负责管理物种的非政府组织等其他行为者带来了挑战。通常，这些组织都是按照非常注重地点的管理策略运作的。他们还经常追求重叠但不同的管理目标。物种的结果将由管理机构和其他行为者之间的互动以及它们能够相互协调的有效程度来决定。该项目研究未来将影响物种的变化，以及负责管理物种的组织如何最好地应对。在审议自然资源管理机构和其他行为者的答复时，该项目将特别侧重于协作治理--即各组织可以采取的步骤，以便更有效地开展合作，相互补充努力，减少冗员。该项目将通过检查阿巴拉契亚山脉中部和南部的生物多样性来开发这些方法，阿巴拉契亚山脉是物种的关键气候避难所和走廊，跨越许多不同管理机构的管辖范围。项目成果将指导管理该地区生物多样性的政策决策，从而产生直接的社会效益。此外，该项目将有助于对博士后学者、研究生和本科生进行跨学科培训，为下一代科学家和决策者做好准备。保护生物多样性的体制安排涉及多个参与者，他们在不同的规模上工作，职责重叠。由于治理安排的复杂性，体制变革可能缓慢，从而抑制了实际决策和管理方面的灵活性。然而，生态系统的变化速度正在增加。适合物种的气候条件正在变化，物种必须适应动态土地利用的马赛克。展望未来，在全球变化颠覆现有管理责任的时代，治理系统必须以新的速度和灵活性进行调整，以保护生物多样性。必须建立新的合作关系，交易特定物种的责任，重新分配有限的资源，并针对未来的不确定性采取管理行动。该项目将预测未来生物多样性的变化，评估治理系统如何最有效地应对，并提供新的方法来帮助做到这一点。该项目将结合生物物理系统模型，包括气候变化、土地利用变化和物种反应，与参与生物多样性治理的利益攸关方举办讲习班和半结构化访谈，以评估他们目前如何将未来变化纳入规划，并探索促进更多协作办法的机会。该项目将导致开发优化方法，以帮助指导管理决策，将生物多样性保护作为一个多参与者问题，将动态内化在相关的多层次治理系统中。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Plants and animals present moving targets for natural resource managers. Species ranges are constantly changing, but this is expected to accelerate in the future with ongoing climate and land use changes. Some species may decline in status in the future presenting emerging management priorities while others, which are currently priorities, may improve. These dynamic conditions present challenges for federal and state agencies and other actors like non-governmental organizations, charged with managing species. Often these organizations operate according to very place-based management strategies. They also often are pursuing overlapping but distinct management goals. Outcomes for species will be determined by interactions among management agencies and other actors and how effectively they are able to coordinate with one another. This project examines future changes that will affect species and how organizations tasked with managing species can best respond. When considering responses by natural resource management agencies and other actors, the project will focus in particular on collaborative governance – that is, the steps organizations can take to work together more effectively, to complement one another’s efforts and to reduce redundancies. The project will develop these methods through an examination of biodiversity in the central and southern Appalachian Mountains, a key climate refuge and corridor for species and one that spans the jurisdictions of many different management agencies. Project results will have direct societal benefit by guiding policy decisions to manage biodiversity in the region. In addition, the project will contribute to the interdisciplinary training of post-doctoral scholars, graduate and undergraduate students, preparing the next generation of scientists and decision makers.Institutional arrangements to safeguard biodiversity involve many actors working over different scales with overlapping responsibilities. Institutional change can be slow due to the complexity of governance arrangements, inhibiting flexibility in policy making and management in practice. Yet rates of change in ecological systems are increasing. Suitable climatic conditions for species are shifting and species must navigate mosaics of dynamic land use to follow. Moving forward, governance systems have to adapt with a newfound speed and dexterity to protect biodiversity in an era where global change is upending existing management responsibilities. New collaborations must be forged, responsibilities for particular species traded, limited resources reallocated, and management actions future-proofed against uncertainty. This project will predict future biodiversity change, evaluate how governance systems can most effectively respond, and provide new methodologies to help do so. The project will combine models of the biophysical system, including climate change, land use change and species responses, with workshops and semi-structured interviews with stakeholders involved in biodiversity governance to evaluate how they currently integrate future change into planning and to explore opportunities for promoting more collaborative approaches. The project will result in the development of optimization approaches to help guide management decision making that examines biodiversity conservation as a multi-actor problem, one that internalizes dynamics within the relevant multi-level governance system.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.