Abstract
The long-term well-being of both people and nature is achievable, assuming major changes in resource distribution and consumption at a global level. This optimistic outlook for the world requires rapid identification of major knowledge gaps that would undermine our ability to achieve a sustainable future if left unaddressed locally and regionally. Our goal was to identify the science needs that would make the biggest contribution to sustaining human society and natural systems in the Upper Midwest and Great Plains, United States. We engaged an interdisciplinary group of scientists and practitioners in an iterative exploration and prioritization process. The resulting list of 50 research questions identified science gaps for strategy implementation to achieve conservation success. Of the original list, 17 questions ranked as highly important in the region. These 17 questions constitute a conservation science agenda for the region. We call for alignment around this common agenda and a concerted, multidisciplinary approach to addressing these priority scientific needs.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Article number | e236 |
| Journal | Conservation Science and Practice |
| Volume | 2 |
| Issue number | 8 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Aug 2020 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:We thank J. Magner, J. Goldstein and all other staff from The Nature Conservancy for their input into this work. We thank the Cox Family Fund for Science and Research for its financial support. This work is the result of collaboration with the USDA Forest Service Northern Research Station, US Fish and Wildlife Service, South Dakota State University, University of Minnesota‐Twin Cities, University of Minnesota‐Duluth, the Large Lakes Observatory, and The Nature Conservancy. We thank three anonymous reviewers for helpful comments that improved the manuscript.
Funding Information:
We thank J. Magner, J. Goldstein and all other staff from The Nature Conservancy for their input into this work. We thank the Cox Family Fund for Science and Research for its financial support. This work is the result of collaboration with the USDA Forest Service Northern Research Station, US Fish and Wildlife Service, South Dakota State University, University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, University of Minnesota-Duluth, the Large Lakes Observatory, and The Nature Conservancy. We thank three anonymous reviewers for helpful comments that improved the manuscript.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 The Authors. Conservation Science and Practice published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of Society for Conservation Biology