Overview

The South Atlantic Conservation Blueprint is a living spatial plan to conserve natural and cultural resources for future generations. It identifies opportunities for shared conservation action in the face of future changes like sea-level rise and urban growth.

The latest update to the Blueprint, Version 2021, was released in August 2021. The Blueprint is totally data-driven, prioritizing the lands and waters of the South Atlantic based on the current condition of terrestrial, freshwater, marine, and cross-ecosystem indicators. Through a connectivity analysis, the Blueprint also identifies corridors that link coastal and inland areas and span climate gradients. So far, more than 700 people from over 200 different organizations have actively participated in developing the Blueprint. The South Atlantic Blueprint also integrates with a broader Southeast-wide plan as part of the Southeast Conservation Adaptation Strategy (SECAS).

The Blueprint is helping more than 200 people from over 90 organizations bring in new funding and inform their conservation decisions. The Blueprint has been used to inform public lands planning, strengthen land protection proposals, identify shared longleaf restoration priorities, refine natural habitat cores in local comprehensive plans, and much more.

You can access the South Atlantic Blueprint in 3 different ways:

• Start simple with the Simple Viewer to explore the Blueprint and underlying data and generate a custom report for your area
• Visit the latest Blueprint data gallery on the South Atlantic Conservation Planning Atlas to dig deeper and overlay layers in an online mapper
• Download a complete data package into your desktop GIS

Audience

• Land and water managers looking to see how their conservation efforts can add up to something bigger
• Natural resource professionals looking to figure out where to get the most “bang for the buck” in the face of future changes (e.g., sea level rise, climate change, urban growth)
• Urban planners and members of open space committees that want to figure out how their efforts can fit into a regional open space / green infrastructure plan
• Cultural resource professionals looking to partner with natural resource organizations to sustain our cultural heritage and tell the story of the South Atlantic region
• Foundations and non-profits looking to see how their conservation investments can be part of a large-scale collaborative adaptation strategy for natural and cultural resources
• Infrastructure planners looking for ways to balance green and grey infrastructure
• Anyone looking to help shape the conservation future of the South Atlantic