Appendix 3
CONSERVATION PLANNING FRAMEWORK
MODEL DESCRIPTION AND BROAD OVERVIEW
To develop a successful conservation plan that benefits people and wildlife alike, managers must somehow efficiently implement and prioritize a variety of disparate activities in a way that minimizes unnecessary efforts or provides decision-makers the ability to track the success and failures of these efforts. A well-designed conceptual framework that includes both environmental and social priorities can help to organize an optimal strategy to complete conservation and development needs while visualizing any missing components. Coupling research for human and natural systems, under a conceptual framework, has yielded new understandings in conservation, including reciprocal feedbacks, time lags in response to one another, and a better understanding of resilience (Liu et al. 2007). Conceptual frameworks that combine social and ecological perspectives have helped to tease apart several intricate details needed to analyze the feedback between ecosystem services and human well-being (Yang et al. 2015). The perspective of human caused press-pulse changes to the environment has been proposed as a conceptual model for managers to measure social-ecological dynamics (Collins et al. 2011, Hansen 2014). Few examples exist where social-ecological frameworks have been applied, and even fewer add a cultural component. One such example of adding culture comes from South Africa where socioecological theory was used to analyze the influence of urbanization behaviors on the environment (McHale et al. 2013). For a successful and practical framework to function, our model includes people as part of the system, rather than passive contributors to change. With millennia of experiences in the environment around them and structured governments in place to manage resources, native people are uniquely poised to implement a social-ecological framework that can work for the whole ecosystem- including people. To convey how our program manages conservation efforts in the presence of human interests, it was important to develop a conceptual framework that combines social and ecological needs specific to the Eastern Band of the Cherokee Indians. A socio-ecological conceptual framework shows how we manage natural resources, inform the tribe, and adapt to changes
2025 NC Wildlife Action Plan
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