Conservation planning is about conserving valued elements such as biodiversity, water quality, or open space in an active landscape of competing uses, values, and other threats and opportunities, and is process involving decisions regarding the location and configuration of conservation areas, when actions will be applied, and how areas will be managed. Conservation planning provides the ability to apply a proactive approach using systematic analysis to prioritize and protect the most significant places, and has the capacity to combine and integrate multiple disciplines to better meet sometimes conflicting objectives. The key attributes of systematic conservation planning include explicit goals, quantitative targets, explicit methods for identifying new conservation areas to complement existing ones, rigorous criteria for implementing conservation action, and explicit objectives and mechanisms for monitoring conditions in a conservation area.

ALNHP can provide conservation planning services for any organization that seeks to apply sound data, science, and tools to the process. The planning process can use existing information or be incorporated as part of a larger inventory effort. The scope of a planning project can range from a single species conservation effort to a complete biodiversity conservation strategy or a comprehensive strategic plan incorporating multiple conservation targets. Our staff brings a variety of expertise, including ecological knowledge and GIS mapping and modeling expertise, to bear on a project. For projects requiring outside expertise we partner with a number of academic institutions, governmental agencies, and non-profit organizations.