Future of Habitat Conservation. The NCCP Experience in Southern California. Part 2 of a Series.

摘要

The Natural Community Conservation Planning (NCCP) program is an ambitious effort to reconcile conflicts between wildlife conservation and land development. Initiated as a pilot program in 1991, it has been hailed as a potential state or national model. However, the results of the pilot program have never been sufficiently evaluated. This report, the second in a series, assesses the results of the NCCP program to date. The first test of the NCCP approach has been an effort to design and implement a series of regional plans to conserve Southern Californias coastal sage scrub ecosystem. This report reviews the two major regional plans that have been approved so far: the Orange County Central-Coastal NCCP and the San Diego Multiple Species Conservation Program (MSCP). These two plans can boast some important achievements. They have facilitated forwardlooking, multiple-species planning across large areas. They have led to the establishment of habitat reserves that contain large blocks of habitat and strive to preserve or restore the connections between fragmented natural areas. They create frameworks for fruitful collaboration across jurisdictional boundaries, and have brought to bear the energies and resources of many agencies and participants who would not normally work together on habitat conservation. The NCCP plans have to some extent made the endangered species regulatory process more streamlined and predictable. However, the plans face a number of problems and unresolved questions, as may future habitat plans based on the NCCP model. This report discusses these problems and questions in terms of three criteria: feasibility, scientific basis, and stakeholder acceptance.