Structure
Steering Team
Oversees, coordinates and integrates the four working groups. Members of the Steering Team drive each of the working groups and actively contribute their expertise.
Composition: Invited, dues-paying representatives from the private sector (media, energy, agriculture, technology, natural resources, finance, professional services) and non-profit conservation, recreation, and conservation leaders. Members: 20.
Branding & Outreach Working Group
Builds public awareness regarding the science of and need for corridors. Branding and Outreach’s goal is broad awareness and support of wildlife corridors as a critical solution for the survival of wildlife on a warming planet.
Composition: Steering Team members, and leaders from the private sector and conservation who are experts in branding, media and advertising, constituency and building coalitions. Members: 15-20.
Objectives: 1). Create a brand identity; 2). Strengthen multi-media presentations; 3). Identify and recruit prominent public spokespeople for connectivity; 4). Develop public relations campaigns that tie together the other Working Groups; 5). Develop a strategy for Witness for Wildlife to engage tens of thousands of individuals across North America.
Connectivity Finance and Private Lands Working Group
Develops strategies for financing connectivity initiatives throughout North America.
Composition: Steering Team members and finance industry leaders, real estate experts, tax specialists, conservationists, land trust officers. Members: 10-15.
Objectives: 1). Determine how much true connectivity conservation will cost, including the cost of mitigating barriers; 2). Determine tools and incentives for private landowners to voluntarily participate in broader connectivity initiatives; 3). Develop strategies for raising the capital needed to achieve continental connectivity.
Corridor Mapping Working Group
Find, collect, and disseminate maps of critical corridors with broad public support for preservation across North America. The Corridor Mapping Group is explicitly not creating comprehensive planning maps for connectivity in North America.
Composition: Steering Team members and conservation biologists, landscape level conservation planners, leaders in developing and utilizing technology including National Geographic’s Landscope. Members: 15-20.
Objectives: 1). Assess geospatial tools and identify ways to build on what has already been accomplished; 2). Develop approach for mapping that includes local stakeholders in defining resources; 3). Identify how dynamic tools can be brought online ; 4) Identify major barriers to achieving connectivity in critical corridor areas.
Policy & Public Lands Working Group
Develops and pursues policies to promote species survival in the context of climate change.
Composition: Steering Team members and public policy experts, current and former elected officials, natural resource and public lands policy experts, conservation advocates, corporate leaders. Members: 15-20.
Objectives: 1). Assist other Working Groups in identifying policy barriers; 2). Identify and develop strategies for achieving the priority recommendations of the Western Governors’ Association (WGA) and others; 3). Develop strategies for federal support of connectivity initiatives.