Publications & Products

In the Center for Conservation Innovation, we lead and collaborate on original science; develop technologies such as web apps; and imagine the next generation of policy, all with a focus on improving conservation outcomes. Here you can search and filter our papers, reports, apps, maps, and other products.

The National Wildlife Refuge System is the nation’s only system of public lands dedicated …

Sagebrush once stretched across almost 500,000 square miles from the Dakotas to California. Known …

For 50 years, the Endangered Species Act (ESA or Act) has worked to keep species from falling off …

This dashboard allows you to examine linkages between the five main drivers of global biodiversity …

Scientists are documenting an unprecedented decline in global biodiversity, mainly driven by …

The U.S. needs a National Biodiversity Strategy (hereafter Strategy). As anation that places a high …

The WALT: Wildlife and Land Trusts tool is a one-stop-shop for land trusts to navigate federal …

The Endangered Species Act (ESA) was a landmark protection for rare organisms in the United States. …

Decades of old-growth forest logging in the Tongass National Forest have significantly reduced …

Comprehensive biodiversity assessments play an essential role in strengthening global and national …

The FY 2024 update on the funding needs for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) endangered …

When you hear the name, National Petroleum Reserve - Alaska (NPR-A, or Reserve), you might think of …

Mitigation means steps taken to avoid, minimize, or offset the impacts of human activities on the …

The Golden-cheeked Warbler (Setophaga chrysoparia) is a Neotropical migratory songbird that is …

This small dashboard examines the sensitivity of U.S. threatened animals to climate change and at …

The Intermountain West is home to the smoky blue Pinyon Jay, a small member of the corvid family. A …

The Interactive Northwest Florida Sentinel Landscape Map was developed by Defenders of Wildlife in …

Achieving ambitious goals to conserve at least 30% of U.S. lands and waters by 2030 will require a …

Highlights of our FY 2021 accomplishments.

Wolves play an essential role in maintaining ecosystem health and their presence or absence can have …

The National Wildlife Refuge System is the only federal lands management system with a focus on …

The U.S. Endangered Species Act (ESA) is widely considered the strongest wildlife protection law in …

In biodiversity conservation, mitigation means steps taken to avoid, minimize, or offset the impacts …

The U.S. Endangered Species Act (ESA) protects over 2,000 species, but no concise, standardized …

Beaver are the classic keystone species and ecosystem engineers. Their dams can alter landscapes in …

The Castor Mapper is a web map that allows users to explore data collected by community scientists …

A wetland is an area of land that is either covered or saturated with water for all or part of the …

In the United States, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service uses the concepts of resilience, …

As climate change continues to accelerate, it is essential to protect natural habitats that act as …

The Golden-cheeked Warbler (GCWA) is a migratory songbird that breeds in only 32 counties in Texas …

A clear and consistent definition of “protected” or “conserved” is needed to establish priority …

Addressing the current biodiversity crisis will require transformative changes to social, political, …

This small dashboard illustrates which states have started 30x30 initiatives. We are tracking …

The Earth is facing environmental crisis. A 2019 global assessment by the Intergovernmental …

The growth of renewable energy is critical to slowing climate change, and the number of solar energy …

The FY 2022 update on the funding needs for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) endangered …

Rivers shape the Pacific Northwest, flowing from snow-capped mountains and carving through rugged …

The conservation status of the lesser prairie-chicken (Tympanuchus pallidicintus) is being assessed …

The ocelot is a medium-sized wild cat found throughout the Americas from Argentina to the …

Biodiversity is deteriorating at a global level as human actions like development, overexploitation, …

This small dashboard illustrates funding across National Wildlife Refuges in the U.S. and is based …

A significant limitation in biodiversity conservation has been the effective implementation of laws …

As the first nation to develop a formal network of protected areas, the U.S. has led the way in …

Defenders of Wildlife is committed to a future where North American wildlife and habitats are secure …

Southern sea otters play a critical role as a keystone species, which means they have a profound …

With their charming smile and white coloration, beluga whales are among the most iconic marine …

This project contains data and code used to analyze the behavior of the collision risk model used by …

Beaver are the classic keystone species. Their remarkable dam building creates deep ponds which are …

The Beaver Habitat Mapper is an interactive map application that allows users to overlay geographic …

Climate change is one of the greatest threats facing biodiversity, and solutions to reduce carbon …

Addressing the current biodiversity crisis will require transformative changes to social, political …

CCI has produced this map to remind Congress why it established protections for the Desert National …

Imperiled species rely on National Wildlife Refuges to shelter them from threats underlying the …

Deep in the heart of southern Georgia lies one of the most outstanding examples of an ecologically …

The Supreme Court’s opinion in Weyerhaeuser Co. v. United States Fish and Wildlife Service, 139 S. …

Areas can be excluded from critical habitat (CH) designations for economic, national security, or …

Laws and regulations that protect imperiled species and their habitats are often limited by …

EarthEnticate is under construction but will eventually become a mobile friendly web app that lets …

Join Defenders for a fun-filled game of Wild Jeopardy! You can also check out other fun videos and …

We have an unprecedented ability to analyze and map the Earth’s surface, as deep learning …

This is a field guide to climate change impacts to wildlife across North America. You can click the …

The Trump Administration has continued to advance work on the border wall between the U.S. and …

This interactive web map facilitates a spatial comparison between California’s protected areas …

Biodiversity is deteriorating at a global level as human actions like development, overexploitation, …

Off the west coast of North America lives the most endangered orca population in the world: the …

After existing for millions of years in the California desert, the desert tortoise is experiencing …

Shark tourism has become a significant driver of tourist dollars both in the United States and …

This document serves as an update of CCI’s funding analysis in 2019 , where we found that the …

Recovering species is one of the main goals of the Endangered Species Act (ESA). In the face of …

To stem the ongoing loss of biodiversity, conservation practitioners must distinguish between …

Arctic National Wildlife Refuge harbors the greatest biodiversity of any protected area north of the …

The science marshalled in recent months and years shows with unrivaled clarity that this is a …

This app helps users understand the costs associated with obtaining a permit for the incidental take …

The Endangered Species Act protects species in danger of extinction (Endangered) or likely to become …

The Endangered Species Act requires the creation of plans for recovering listed species. Long-term …

The U.S. Endangered Species Act requires a review of the status of listed species once every five …

Proposals have been put forward to remove U.S. Endangered Species Act (ESA) protections from species …

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service provides tables of the counties of occurrence of each ESA-listed …

Defenders of Wildlife supports the development of renewable energy sources and works to ensure that …

Learn how the Endangered Species Act (ESA) works in our new series! Meg Evansen, our Conservation …

The Supreme Court’s opinion in Weyerhaeuser Co. v. United States Fish and Wildlife Service, 139 S. …

Over the last decade, the conservation community has partnered with tribes, national parks and …

The Trump Administration has continued to advance work on the border wall between the U.S. and …

The Heat Is On fact sheets describe the current, deleterious effects of climate change on species …

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently released its Draft Revised Method for National …

Disregarding more than 800,000 public comments opposing its proposal to weaken implementation of the …

The Endangered Species Act is considered one of the strongest acts in the world for protecting …

The Center for Conservation Innovation has produced a static map and story map to accompany a report …

The Partnership for Action on Conservation Technology (PACT) 2019 was a workshop held on 12 June …

Conservationists need a platform with tools tailored to our needs, like Microsoft Office and …

The Kinder Morgan Pipeline will destroy Golden cheeked warbler habitat in the Hill Country. This …

In May 2019, the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services …

The US Fish and Wildlife Service has been developing a new web service to make their data more …

The goals of the Endangered Species Act (ESA) are to prevent extinction and recover species, but …

The Forest Service released a federal proposed action for amending the Thunder Basin Land and …

This report was produced by Defenders of Wildlife, with the support of CCI, to detail the effects …

The Trump Administration has continued to advance work on the border wall between the U.S. and …

The Trump Administration has continued to advance work on the border wall between the U.S. and …

Deforestation can be monitored from space using Earth observation satellites. For this interactive, …

Recovery planning is an essential part of implementing the U.S. Endangered Species Act (ESA), but …

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A Shiny app to explore section 7 consultation data from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife …

This report, produced in collaboration between Defenders of Wildlife and National Parks Conservation …

CCI provides mapping support throughout Defenders for informational handouts, such as this boat …

An interactive story map detailing how border wall construction would impact the people, places and …

An analysis of the funding needed for the US Fish and Wildlife Service to properly implement the US …

Under the North American model of wildlife management, states take the lead on managing many …

Helping ensure that renewable energy projects are built close to existing transmission, on already …

A map showing recovery units designated for threatened and endangered species, which allow more …

Over 1/4 of lands in the U.S. are federally owned and are essential to protecting wildlife. This …

A web map app showing recovery zones for the Florida panther.

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An alpha-stage app to view the areas occupied by Pacific Coast salmon listed under the …

The Lesser Prairie-Chicken is an imperiled species that was formerly listed as a threatened species, …

The jaguar is an important keystone predator whose range extends from South America through the …

Defenders of Wildlife maintains the Electric Fence Incentive Program in the Rockies and Plains …

Thousands of pages of ESA-related documents are created every year, each containing important and …

Map depicting proposed road through Izembek National Wildlife Refuge.

Hurricane Michael damaged countless communities along the gulf coast - an area that is also home to …

CCI has helped support spatial analyses and mapping to protect desert tortoises, a project led by …

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) released a 7-year workplan used to prioritize ongoing …

Knowing where ESA-listed species live is the first step to avoiding, minimizing, and mitigating …

The U.S. Endangered Species Act directs the Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) and the National Marine …

Background: The dunes sagebrush lizard (Sceloporus arenicolus) is an imperiled species that is …

Any prioritization system must first establish the overall objective for the program. This requires …

Historically, the range maps used in implementing the Endangered Species Act (ESA) have been only …

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Since 1973, over 2,000 species have been listed as 'Threatened' or 'Endangered' under the …

This white paper explains the problems with the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service’s recent …

Sand mines can be even more disruptive than oil and gas development, removing very large swaths of …

Compliance monitoring is an integral part of law and policy implementation. A lack of compliance …

At Defenders’ Center for Conservation Innovation, we are using satellite images to track the …

A brief overview of Congressional appropriations and agency expenditures on the Endangered Species …

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The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's Southeast Region assembled a small Microsoft Access …

Implementing automated habitat change detection over the range of the Lesser Prairie-Chicken.

An analysis of incidental take data authorized and recorded by the US Fish and Wildlife Service in …

Critical habitat occupies a contentious position in endangered species policy (see, e.g., James and …

Imperiled species are threatened by a variety of factors, many of which stem from human population …