Resources

Below find some print and web-based resources that we find important in understanding the need to conserve grasslands and the strategies that are available to improve grassland biodiversity conservation practices.

Papers

  • Confronting a Biome Crisis: Global Disparities of Habitat Loss and Protection (download paper here)- This paper identifies the world’s terrestrial biomes and the ecoregions in which biodiversity and ecological function are at greatest risk because of extensive habitat conversion and limited habitat protection.  Temperate grasslands are the least protected and the most in need of protection.
  • New Directions for the Prairie Economy:  Connecting Conservation and Rural Development in the Northern Great Plains (download the full report here)-  This 2009 report by the WWF Northern Great Plains program provides the rationale and points the way forward for merging biodiversity-based conservation and rural development in the region.  It provides twelve recommendations for policy makers.
  • IUCN Grassland Taskforce: What are global temperate grasslands worth? A case for their protection (download full report here)- A review of current research on their total value.  No empirical valuation research was found by this review that addressed intact temperate grasslands specifically. In a biome with the highest Conservation Risk Index globally, our understanding of the TEV of the goods and services provided by indigenous temperate grasslands is therefore virtually non-existent. As a result, temperate grasslands are one of the least understood global biomes in terms of their value to sustainable economic uses, and the provision of socio-cultural and ecosystem goods and services that contribute to human well-being.

Projects

  • Switzer Ranch & Nature Reserve (www.switzerranch.com)- The Switzer Ranch is a fourth generation family cattle ranch near Burwell, Nebraska, on the eastern edge of the Nebraska Sandhills.  The ranch incorporated grassland biodiversity conservation planning and practices into its traditional cattle management activities, while developing nature-based activities, including bird watching and fee hunting, to improve the bottom-line and create more opportunity for family members to return to the ranch.
  • 4 D Rush Lake Reserve (www.4Dreserve.com)- This is also a fourth generation cattle ranch, found in Garden County, Nebraska, on the western edge of the Nebraska Sandhills.  The ranch just started to offer spring birding and accommodations for guests wishing to experience the Nebraska Sandhills, while zoning out a portion of the ranch for more intensive biodiversity management practices.
  • American Prairie Foundation (http://www.americanprairie.org/)- The American Prairie Reserve is building a three million acre not-for-profit wildlife reserve along the Missouri River in eastern Montana, adjacent to the Charles Russell National Wildlife Refuge.
  • NamibRand Nature Reserve (www.namibrand.com)- This is a 500,000 acre private nature reserve in the African country of Namibia which offers a wide spectrum of nature-based experiences and accommodations, while managing the property for biodiversity conservation.  It is one of the best examples of market-driven private conservation anywhere in the world.

Videos