The Woodlands Partnership of Northwest Massachusetts was recently named a Regional Conservation Partner (RCP), joining a network of over 50 RCPs and over 600 organizations and agencies. Below are excerpts of Highstead’s recent coverage of the Woodlands Partnership and more information about the RCP Network.
Protecting Forests and Livelihoods: The Woodlands Partnership of Northwest Massachusetts is helping to both conserve forests and strengthen the region’s rural economy
“When you attend our board meetings, it’s a group of local people who are very familiar with the towns; the job opportunities; the challenges, particularly in rural towns, to provide services—schools, fire services, ambulance services. Those are things that the local community understands in a way that some outside group just wouldn’t know. That’s the benefit of having a board made up of local people who intrinsically understand what’s going on,” says Crane . . .
The Partnership’s mission includes land conservation as well as municipal financial sustainability, rural economic development, and education and outreach goals. “The forest economy is an important part of the Partnership’s mission, making sure we have local jobs that are natural resource-based,” says Hayden.
“Rural sustainability will promote conservation,” Crane adds. “If that landscape is seen and recognized as valuable by the community, there is an incentive to conserve it.”
READ HIGHSTEAD'S COVERAGE
The Regional Conservation Partnership (RCP) Network
“Regional Conservation Partnerships have helped shape collaborative conservation throughout New England and eastern New York for decades, protecting over 335,000 acres of land in the region. The Regional Conservation Partnership (RCP) Network goes one step further by encouraging peer learning and cross-boundary collaboration among RCPs and other regional partners creating opportunities for training, research, and capacity-building that leverage investments and scale up their collective conservation impact over time.
The Network makes it easier for RCPs to learn from each other, to implement innovative practices to overcome challenges, and to protect land from development at a scale beyond what individual RCPs and regional partners could do on their own. Working toward the Wildlands & Woodlands vision, the Network harnesses the power of conservation groups and encourages stakeholders from other sectors to become involved.
Our collective of private and public groups work together to drive innovation and foster collaboration between governments, businesses, conservationists, philanthropists, regional planning and local economic development groups, academic institutions, scientists, and other networks.”
