Land Conservation Tools Glossary

Below are definitions for some of the more specific terms used on the website.

General terms

Climate adaptation: Preparing for and responding to climate change impacts through resistance, resilience and transformation actions. This includes actions to reduce negative effects on human and natural communities and taking advantage of potential opportunities that arise from a changing climate.

Climate adaptation interests: The intersection of climate adaptation and land conservation goals (four categories outlined underneath this heading below).

Climate niche: (in DSL tool profile) Represents a species' apparent range of tolerance to climate variability based on the species' current distribution and the current climate.

Conservation blueprint: A plan that can be directly used without the need for other information sources to guide land conservation decisions.

Conservation phases: Stages of the conservation process that practitioners may be working on (four defined categories outlined underneath this heading below).

Conservation tasks: Common projects and purposes that land conservation practitioners engage in (five defined categories outlined underneath this heading below).

Conservation practitioner: Person engaged in land conservation.

Ecological integrity: The long-term capability of an ecosystem to sustain its composition, structure and function, and maintain its resilience to stressors.

Ecological settings variables: (in DSL tool profile) A multivariate set of biophysical attributes that describe the abiotic, biotic and anthropogenic environment of each point in the landscape.
Forest conservation goals: Common forest protection and stewardship aims of conservation practitioners (six defined categories outlined underneath this heading below).

Land conservation: Includes land protection and land stewardship.

Land protection: Permanently conserving land by legally restricting development, generally through land acquisition or the use of conservation easements/restrictions.

Land stewardship: Physical management of land and other land use decisions associated with land ownership or management responsibility.

Landscape capability: (in DSL tool profile) An index of a species' relative probability of occurrence based on climate, habitat and other factors; it is an estimate of the species' distribution based on measurable factors.

Regional connectivity: (in DSL tool profile) Connectivity at the spatial scale at which populations through time interact indirectly with the landscape; in practice, this relates to the elimination of barriers to movement and linking undeveloped landscape blocks together to form interconnected networks of conservation land.

Resilience: Improving the capacity of a ecosystem to return to a desirable (but not the same) condition following disturbance.

Resistance: Resisting change in order to maintain current ecological conditions.

Transformation: Allowing and/or facilitating the transition to new ecological conditions.

 

Climate adaptation interests

Species and communities will need to respond to new climatic conditions such as changes in temperature and precipitation. The below four categories address the intersection of climate adaptation and land conservation goals, and can help practitioners consider and address climate adaptation in their land conservation work.

Tools may be ranked as “Most suitable for”, or “Also good for” any given category, to highlight the tools most applicable to that aspect of climate adaptation.

Connectivity: Promoting the movement of species and material (e.g. water, substrate, woody debris) across the landscape by connecting habitat and ecosystems.

Land stewardship: Management actions to make land more resistant or resilient to change, or to guide ecosystem transformation in response to a changing climate.

Range changes: Land protection or stewardship that anticipates projected changes in species distribution in response to climate change.

Rare & exemplary communities: Increasing the resistance, resilience or transformation of rare and exceptional fish, wildlife and plant communities.

 

Conservation phases

Stages of the conservation process that practitioners may be working on (four defined categories):

Motivation: Increasing awareness of conservation needs and inspiring people to engage in conservation planning and action.

Assessment: Using conservation data to better understand the landscape and create a blueprint for action.

Plan: Adopting a conservation blueprint to guide action.

Action: Implementing actions such as habitat management or land protection.

 

Conservation tasks

Common projects and purposes that land conservation practitioners engage in (five defined categories):

Grants: Applying for or awarding land conservation grants.

Land stewardship: Physical management of land and other land use decisions associated with land ownership or management responsibility.

Land (open space) protection: Permanently conserving land by legally restricting development, generally through land acquisition or the use of conservation easements/restrictions.

Landscape connectivity: Assessing and improving regional connectivity via the elimination of barriers to movement and linking undeveloped landscape blocks together to form interconnected networks of conservation land.

Public outreach: Engaging with the community to inform, educate, and generate support for land conservation.
 

Forest conservation goals

Common forest protection and stewardship aims of forest conservation practitioners (six defined categories).

Tools may be ranked as “Most suitable for”, or “Also good for” any given category, to highlight the tools most applicable to that forest conservation issue.

Climate adaptation: Preparing for and responding to climate change impacts through consideration of forest resistance, resilience and transformation.

Conservation of rare species & communities: Conservation of rare fish, wildlife and plant species and increasing the resistance, resilience or transformation of vulnerable forest types and exemplary vegetative communities.

Forest productivity & diversity: Managing land to produce diverse and productive forests, often with a focus on particular species valued for forest products or wildlife habitat.

Individual parcel conservation: Identification of individual land parcels for forest protection and stewardship based on their natural resource values.

Landscape-scale conservation: Strategic forest conservation focused on protection and stewardship of large blocks of undeveloped habitat, diverse ecosystems, and connectivity among areas of conserved land.

Management of wildlife habitat: Forest management to improve habitat conditions for particular wildlife species or groups of species.