Making the Case: Investing in Collaborative Landscape Conservation & Stewardship
In today’s world, communities are facing the complex, interconnected challenges of climate change, biodiversity loss, economic development, water security, wildfire, environmental injustice and more. It is clear that collaborative responses are essential to addressing such challenges.
The prevailing paradigm for how we resource the conservation and stewardship efforts however is a critical limiting factors: Funders primarily focus on discrete projects and direct project implementation, with little if any funding targeted to investing in collaborative capacity—the ability to align partners, build trust, coordinate action across jurisdictions and sectors, engage communities, and maintain shared strategies over time so that a collaborative can meet its collective purpose and achieve desired outcomes. It is increasingly clear that developing and resourcing collaborative capacity is a foundational key to unlocking on-the-ground impact that actually shifts the trajectory on the complex, interconnected challenges facing our landscapes and communities.
Recognizing this as a systemic, common-to-all challenge, a group of practitioners and support organizations have come together to develop an open-source, living document that is intended to help practitioners, funders, policymakers, and others communicate the value of collaborative approaches—and to convey the critical need for investments in collaborative capacity.
Download the Collaborative Capacity Case Statement
This resource draws on research, practitioner experience, and field-based examples to make the case for the sustained collaborative capacity and infrastructure funding that enables durable, cross-boundary outcomes. As new knowledge and deepened experience continue to build, this resource may evolve over time, but we encourage all to begin to use it—directly as is or as a starting point to borrow language or ideas from—as a tool for making the case for individual collaborative initiatives.
We understand that there is a depth of knowledge and experience throughout the field, and we offer this resource with humility in understanding that many may have additional insights around conveying the importance of collaborative approaches and capacity investments. Above all, our hope is that this resource creates a space for continued conversation and exploration, and we look forward to hearing reactions, feedback, stories of if and how this helps you, and suggestions for improvement.