The Wildlife Habitat Council presented the Gulf Coast Regional Conference: Restoring Habitat, Opening Migratory Corridors, in Luling, Louisiana, on March 24, 2011. Fifty-five participants registered, representing WHC member corporations, new members within the region, non-profit sector partners, private consultants and governmental partners. The conference was held indoors at the Monsanto Luling Conference Center, where governmental partners and WHC members conducted brief presentations to showcase projects and programs in the area, allowing all participants to gain an understanding of concerns and opportunities within the region.
The presenters included case studies from ExxonMobil, Kinder Morgan, Freeport McMoRan and Albermarle Corporations, along with an in-depth study of the Wildlife at Work and Corporate Lands for Learning programs of the Luling employee volunteer teams. Governmental partners from the National Resources Conservation Service, the US Fish and Wildlife Service, and the US Forest Service also presented to the group, leading a collegial discussion in the afternoon to develop a plan to move ahead, as a working group, in the Gulf Coast states. The group was also treated to a “sneak preview” of the new WHC portal on the Conservation Registry to help visual conservation opportunities in the region.
Among the results of the collaborative sessions, the group devised a vision statement that it is “looking to transition from a local perspective of land management to a regional perspective—‘connecting the dots’—in conservation and conservation education throughout the region. The group, representing government, non-profit and private sectors, all agreed upon common values that they shared:
- The “corporate neighborliness” demonstrated at the conference and through WHC members will continue to be encouraged for the good of conservation and communities.
- Community involvement and partnerships are essential to the volunteer programs and projects that we do and should be encouraged.
- We all must work together to improve education on a larger scale.
The collective explored the future potential to “connect -the-dots” of various programs, partners, and conservation projects along migratory pathways and determined that it was important to establish a firm foundation if that vision is to move forward in the future. The participants of the Gulf Coast Conference also agreed to formalize a community of learners, a coalition focused on taking action in the region, with broad participation from all sectors to keep the sort of conversations that have begun in Luling going into the months and years ahead. Other preliminary outcomes included a structure of quarterly meetings and the development of a system which will continue to allow information to be gathered and shared among members as freely and openly as was begun in Luling.
The group will convene again, via electronic meeting, in late April. Please check back for more updates as this collaboration proceeds into the coming months and years.
