Chapter 6 Conservation Goals and Priorities
6.2.1 Developing Conservation Goals As part of the SWAP revision process, a team of biologists and technical staff were tasked with evaluating conservation goals. The team developed recommendations that called for the SWAP conservation goals to focus on species and habitat conservation efforts and to use objectives and strategies to address other conservation topics that support achieving these two goals. There was a broad consensus that the goals should focus on two primary conservation goals that concentrate on wildlife and natural communities. There was also agreement that efforts focused on developing partnerships and education and outreach programs, and rules, regulations, and technical guidance should be used as objectives and strategies to achieve the updated goals, rather than serve as individual goals. 6.2.1.1 Conservation Goals Framework The following format represents the revised framework for the revised SWAP conservation goals and the relationship between project-specific objectives, strategies, and priority actions that are used to achieve the goals.
GOAL (the overarching concept) Objective (what we want to achieve with this goal)
Strategy (a way to achieve the objective)—these will be project specific, but examples are provided. Priority Action (recommended actions that can be general or specific)— these will be project specific, but examples are provided.
Because projects represent many types of conservation efforts, the strategies and priority actions must be project specific—incorporating adaptive management concepts that address the need for project modification based on results that are measurable. The updated conservation goals and recommended objectives that focus on species and habitats, as well as example strategies and priority actions, are outlined in Appendix 6, Tables 6-1 and 6-2. The example strategies and priority actions provided in the tables are based on State Wildlife Grant (SWG)-funded projects implemented by NCWRC biologists. 6.2.2 Conservation Funding Resources In Chapter 1 of this SWAP, we outlined how the federal SWG program provides matching grant funds for conservation efforts on behalf of SGCN priority species. The funds can be used for many types of conservation activities, such as surveys, monitoring, research, partnerships and programs, and land acquisition for habitat conservation. In addition to SWG dollars, money from several trust-fund resources historically has been used in North Carolina to support specific types of land conservation. Successful land acquisition depends on matching site priorities with appropriate trust funds.
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2025 NC Wildlife Action Plan
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