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Can A Large-Landscape Conservation Vision Contribute To Achieving Biodiversity Targets?, Mark Hebblewhite, Jodi A. Hilty, Sara Williams, Harvey Locke, Charles Chester, David Johns, Gregory Kehm, Wendy L. Francis

Political Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

Founded in 1993, the Yellowstone to Yukon (Y2Y) vision was one of the earliest large-landscape conservation visions. Despite growing recognition of large-landscape conservation strategies, there have been few tests to date of conservation gains achieved through such approaches. We tested for conservation gains in the Y2Y region of North America following initiation of the Y2Y conservation vision in 1993 using a counterfactual spatiotemporal comparison and tracking change in five different conservation metrics. First, we enumerated the area of land within Y2Y in designated protected areas. We then compared the rate of change of protected area growth before- and after-initiation of …