Goals: Taking Action

Our Goals have been expanded and updated!

In 2006, Florida's Wildlife Legacy Initiative worked with partners to identify 5 implementation Goals to guide our efforts during 2007-2009. These Goals were based on the statewide actions and the 18 priority habitats in the Florida's Strategic Vision chapter of the State Wildlife Action Plan (Action Plan, previously the Comprehensive Wildlife Conservation Strategy). Since the Action Plan is a document owned by the conservation community of Florida and not just FWC, we identified Goals that are shared among FWC and our partners.

In 2009 we reviewed these Goals and discussed changes to the Goals with FWC staff and partners similar to the 2006 effort. The major change will be to add two years duration to the implementation of our original Goals, carrying them through 2011. Though we have made significant progress on these Goals, there is more work to be done. In addition, this would align with the schedule in the Action Planfor a 5-year timeframe for review of implementation efforts.

In addition to continuing our current Goals through 2011, Goal One has been updated to include two new important components: Climate Change and the Coastal Wildlife Conservation Initiative. These are both recognized as emerging issues that cover multiple habitats and require a statewide cooperative effort between FWC and partners.

Goals 2009 - 2011

1. Florida's Wildlife Legacy Initiative Coordination and Development
   Goal - Use Florida's Wildlife Legacy Initiative framework to coordinate natural resource conservation by (1) implementing and revising the State Wildlife Action Plan, (2) developing and maintaining partnerships, (3) managing the State Wildlife Grants Program.
   
   Key activities include developing a proactive management system that identifies Climate Change issues important to wildlife conservation in Florida and integrate with the Coastal Wildlife Conservation Initiative (CWCI) to create an effective partnership to address wildlife conservation needs.
   

   Objective 1 - By the end of 2011, revise the State Wildlife Action Plan.

   Objective 2 - By July 2011, establish the CWCI standing team, composed of leadership from FWC, state agencies, partners and stakeholders. Explore the establishment of a memorandum of understanding to define the responsibilities and commitments of the participants.

   Objective 3 - By July 2011, incorporate Climate Change Work Group strategies into Florida's Wildlife Action Plan that will address the threat of climate change to fish and wildlife resources in Florida.

2. Performance Measures
   Goal - Enhance performance measure monitoring of priority species and habitats by developing a tracking system for species and habitats identified in the Action Plan.
   

   Objective 1 - Use Species Ranking System to track species monitoring

   Objective 2- Build upon the habitat monitoring system by adding recommended performance measures as new data become available and by developing a web-based reporting system for each of the six priority habitats , and by 2012 use this system to demonstrate and describe changes in habitat status since the system was first implemented in 2009.

3. Data Gaps
   Goal - Obtain information on the life history, status, trend, population dynamics, and management needs for SGCN. Explore data gaps and projects that are filling them.
   

   • Objective- By the end of 2011 obtain information on the life history, status, trend, population dynamics, and/or management needs of 45 SGCN with low or unknown status and declining or unknown trend.
     • Evaluate whether progress on this objective can be tracked through the decrease in action scores of SGCN within the Species Ranking System from 2009 levels.

4. Habitat Conservation
   Goal - Facilitate habitat conservation efforts on the following high priority habitat categories to improve their health and resiliency and to achieve their long term ecological sustainability statewide:

   a.	Sandhill	d.	Spring and Spring Run
   b.	Scrub	e.	Coral Reef
   c.	Softwater Stream	f.	Seagrass

    

5. Cooperative Conservation Blueprint
   Goal - Develop a GIS application that identifies the most important cooperative conservation focal areas for Florida's terrestrial, freshwater, and marine ecosystems.  Merge the various existing GIS planning applications in order to generate an integrated land and water cover map for Florida.  Make it available on Arc IMS. Visit CCB page.
   

   Objective 1 - By the end of 2010, Develop a standalone Cooperative Conservation Blueprint consensus vision that is used to help inform future land planning decisions.

   Objective 2 - By the end of 2011, draft incentives which encourage habitat conservation to be used in conjunction with the Cooperative Conservation Blueprint.

The ultimate Goal is to conserve our native wildlife and habitats through non-regulatory, voluntary, incentive-based actions and partnerships. Partnerships built around these areas are critical because this effort is much larger than any one agency or organization can accomplish alone.