Partners for Conservation is currently conducting a survey of over 260 collaborative conservation efforts underway in eight western states. One of the founding principles of Partners for Conservation is that collaboration gets work done, and in this survey we hope to learn more about these groups, what they are working on and what they are getting done. While working with partners to identify their collaborations, we have already learned more about the broad spectrum of issues that these efforts are working on. Through the survey we hope to learn more about their work, what perspectives are involved, what they are getting done, and how the groups are tracking their progress toward their shared goals.
The western states have a very robust collaborative conservation community, something that seems to us to be a bit unique as we talk to landowners and conservation partners around the country. Partners for Conservation strongly believes that diverse perspectives working collaboratively has huge potential to solve landscape-level challenges all across our nation. We hope that what we learn through the survey will help us talk more authoritatively to landowners, communities, and conservation leaders everywhere about what these efforts have accomplished and what they are still getting done.
We are eager to share what we learn and will be developing a report later this summer to share broadly. We also hope to have at least one Zoom video conference sharing the results with the western collaboratives and others that have an interest in this topic. Stay tuned for more news on this effort!