From assessment to action: Linking biodiversity assessments and place-based conservation to support transformative change

Scientific biodiversity assessments are challenged by the need to examine systemic drivers of change while maintaining support in a polarized political climate. Recent US national policy shifts that have reduced federal support for scientific assessments underscore the necessity of a broad-based, resilient, and scalable assessment framework with sustained engagement of conservation practitioners from academia, non-governmental organizations, and subnational governments. Such an information ecosystem would integrate spatial data relevant to practitioners from national to regional extents with case studies of place-based strategies and mechanisms for framing local successes within national objectives. The recent response by US climate scientists defending scientific integrity in the face of political polarization provides a relevant model for enhancing collaboration across national science academies, scientific societies, and ad hoc groups of experts. Subnational initiatives such as the Florida Wildlife Corridor and Southeast Conservation Adaptation Strategy provide examples of ambitious, science-informed conservation assessments developed and implemented with both governmental and public support. Engaging a diversity of participants and ensuring greater salience across scales are complementary elements of an integrated approach to strengthening the effectiveness of assessments. Sustaining non-governmental capacity for engagement with the assessment process requires improved models of collaboration, altered academic reward structures, and diverse sources of funding. Improved integration of national-scale data in subnational assessments can strengthen existing models, including state and provincial biodiversity strategies, and support the synthesis of currently fragmented spatial data on biodiversity distribution, threats, and conservation priorities. Stronger linkages between narrative assessments and spatial data, between spatial data and place-based action, and between public engagement with the assessment process and local conservation initiatives can ensure a diverse, resilient support system for biodiversity data development, synthesis, and application that produces actionable and scalable knowledge to support place-based conservation.