I was lucky enough to attend the first ever Northeastern North America / Turtle Island Connectivity Summit (NENAM) in Montréal / Tiohtià:ke, Canada, hosted by our friends at the Quebec Labrador Foundation, the Center for Large Landscape Conservation, and the Staying Connected Initiative. The Salazar Center’s efforts focus on the continental scale, so it was especially exciting to attend a conference where the attendees were collectively focused on their impact on a shared and beloved landscape. The spirit of the gathering was centered on transcending borders and sectors to recognize that humans, plants, and wildlife need connected landscapes to thrive.
NENAM brought together practitioners, government representatives, agencies, tribal representatives, and funders to create a regional roadmap to better understand their challenges and achieve a resilient and connected Northeastern North America.
The Salazar Center also wants to protect this ecologically diverse and important geography. We plan to hold our second Peregrine Accelerator for Conservation Impact – a tailored training, mentorship, and peer-learning program designed to identify and strengthen innovative conservation projects – in the North Atlantic Transboundary region.
This region encompasses seven U.S. states and three Canadian provinces. The landscape has even been identified by The Nature Conservancy as one of their four globally significant core areas, due to the region’s critical potential to conserve biodiversity, act as a carbon sink, and provide resilience in the face of climate change. From the Atlantic coast to the Adirondacks and Appalachians, a host of plant and animal species rely on an intact and conserved landscape to survive. The collaborative work being done by the organizations at NENAM is a vital step to ensuring species can move between habitats, particularly in the face of a changing climate that is pushing many to higher elevations and latitudes.
Takeaways
I learned so much from this impressive group. These are a few of the takeaways that will stick with me from NENAM:
1. Indigenous nations are leading the way
Indigenous groups are responsible for stewarding 80% of the world’s biodiversity, despite making up only 5% of the world’s population. Indigenous Traditional Ecological Knowledge is continuously proving to be critical for protecting intact landscapes. The tribes and First Nations of the northeast are leading a multitude of impressive efforts to establish Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas (IPCAs), restore free flowing rivers, and reignite the traditional stewardship of their ancestral lands. For too long the conservation community kept Indigenous groups out of critical conversations, and the time is now to elevate and collaborate with those who have stewarded the land for time immemorial. A particularly poignant moment was when Elder Dr. Albert D. Marshall Sr., Moose Clan of the Mi’kmaw Nation, Mi’ma’ki encouraged us all to “walk together with the uniqueness we have been given” when doing this critical work.
2. Conservation wins when different sectors come together
One aspect of NENAM that particularly impressed me was the diversity of sectors represented. The audience comprised transportation agencies, public works departments, environmental nonprofits, tribal organizations, state and municipal leaders, landscape scale collaboratives, and more. This diverse group of representatives meant that the discussions, particularly in the breakout groups, yielded thoughts and insights that were innovative and integrative of the many sectors represented. I am excited to see the final roadmap because it will reflect a multitude of ideas and perspectives historically kept out of the landscape connectivity conversation.
3. We need innovative financing and funding
It is no secret that conservation remains one of the least funded sectors, despite the critical benefits and risk-reduction that nature provides to humans. The global $700 billion financing gap is one of the starkest examples of this, demonstrating that we can no longer afford to do business as usual when it comes to funding conservation. I was excited to hear examples of how leaders in this region are working to explore new ways of funding this critical work. From bonds for nature to cultural ecosystem service valuation, there is a need for a diverse and innovative mix of public and private financing to successfully pay for the work that needs to be done.
My colleague, Catie Boehmer, recently attended the Conservation Finance Network annual bootcamp. She shares her thoughts about the state of conservation funding here.
4. Working at all scales is critical to achieve connectivity
From the smallest wildlife crossing to a dam removal, to a thousand-acre forest reserve, we need to be thinking of landscape connectivity across all scales. This was made evident by the diversity of work that was shared throughout the summit. And importantly, a connected landscape can work to scale up solutions that are successful on the ground by sharing best practices across stakeholders. When we add it all up, landscape connectivity is the result of a multitude of projects that collectively connect and enhance natural space for humans and wildlife. Because of this, projects of every size are necessary to achieve our goals!
5. Borders are man-made
Wildlife and humans have existed without politically designated borders for millennia and will continue to do so into the future. As the climate changes dramatically and pushes species out of their natural ranges, we must ensure that habitats exist to support their movement. A deer, bear, bird, or bug is not going to care whether they are in the United States or Canada, they will only care if they have the resources needed to support their shift in range. Collaboration across these borders is critical for the ensured survival of us all. Similarly, Indigenous nations such as the Wabanaki have been separated by federal borders. They are still connected by their shared knowledge, traditions, and stewardship of the region, and demonstrate that borders are truly what we make of them.
Final thoughts
It is exciting to see the impressive collaboration towards a shared vision of what connectivity means for the Northeast Atlantic region. I am personally thrilled to be bringing the Peregrine Accelerator to the region in 2025, knowing that there is a strong base of committed and visionary practitioners working to build resilience for the region. We all have our work set out for us to meet global challenges for climate and biodiversity, and the NENAM summit proved that together, we just might get there.
