Designing Nature’s Half:
The Blog
News and education about landscape conservation and design.
A World Environment Day Reflection: Designing Nature's Half and the Work Ahead
More than fifty years after its creation, World Environment Day continues to raise awareness of environmental challenges. But as climate, biodiversity, water, and human systems become increasingly understood as interconnected, a deeper question emerges: how should society organize decisions across the systems that shape environmental outcomes? This reflection explores that question while marking an important milestone for Designing Nature's Half.
International Day for Biological Diversity: From Land Protection to System Design
Biological diversity depends on connected social-ecological systems, yet many decisions affecting those systems remain fragmented across landscapes, jurisdictions, and time. This International Day for Biological Diversity, the deeper question is not only what conservation protects, but how conservation must be organized to sustain life across the systems it depends on. From protection to system design, biodiversity increasingly reveals the need for more integrated conservation at ecological scale.
Earth Day Edition: Designing What Comes Next - Ecoregional Cooperatives and the Architecture of Landscape Governance
As environmental governance falters, the question is no longer whether coordination is needed, but how it can be rebuilt. This Earth Day essay explores Ecoregional Cooperatives, landscape conservation design, and ecosocialism as democratic, place-based approaches to organizing decisions at the scale ecological conditions demand.
Designing the Future in the In-Between Time
In times of upheaval, long-term thinking becomes even more important. This update on the development of Designing Nature’s Half explains what’s behind the book, where the manuscript stands today, and how its focus is shifting from landscape conservation design toward governance and implementation.
🌎The Future of Landscape Conservation: Participatory Multi-Sector Design of Sustainable Landscapes, with Dr. Amanda Sesser
Dr. Amanda Sesser, the Coordinator of the Southeast Conservation Adaptation Strategy (SECAS) Partnership, discusses the need for inclusive design and decision-making processes that involve diverse stakeholders and empower communities.
🌎A Blueprint for Collaborative Conservation, with Alex Wright
Alex Wright is a Landscape Science Coordinator for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), Science Applications program in the Midwest Region. In that role, he facilitates partnerships and develops tools to help coordinate voluntary conservation actions and investments across the Midwest vis-a-vis the Midwest Landscape Initiative.
🌎Connectivity Is Key: The Future of Protected Areas for Biodiversity Conservation, with Hugh Possingham
Hugh Possingham, Professor of Mathematics and Ecology at the University of Queensland, Australia, shares his expertise in biodiversity conservation, spatial planning, and decision science in protected area networks and Marxan, a spatial prioritization decision support tool. Tune into this enlightening conversation packed with expert insights perfect for anyone passionate about sustaining nature half through thoughtful planning, design, and collective action!
🌎A New Era in Conservation: Understanding Landscape Conservation, Design, and Sustainability, with Rob Campellone and Tom Miewald
Rob Campellone and Tom Miewald, co-hosts of Designing Nature’s Half: The Landscape Conservation Podcast, discuss Empowering Landscape Partnerships: A Journey Towards Sustainability & Resilience.