North American Ranching Industries, Beef Cattle Trade, and Grasslands: Status and Trends
These sets of infographics stem from CEC-funded efforts to chronicle recent trends in the North American cattle ranching industry and beef cattle trade, and the grasslands that support these vital sectors. Experts compiled data from Canada, Mexico and the United States according to an agreed-upon set of variables and procedures, including the use of common […]
Four Years of Collaboration in the Big Bend-Rio Bravo Region
This brochure provides an overview of the Commission for Environmental Cooperation’s activities, from 2011 to 2015, supporting experts from Mexico and the United States in increasing the knowledge and capacity for conservation practices within the citizenry of the Big Bend-Río Bravo borderland.
Greenhouse Gas Offset Methodology Criteria for Tidal Wetland Conservation
This document supports the development of a global greenhouse gas (GHG) offset methodology for tidal wetland conservation. The Verified Carbon Standard (VCS) provides a set of requirements which projects must meet before offsets are issued. The requirements for wetlands projects include determining the baseline scenario and anticipated GHG emissions, setting the project boundary, determining additionality, quantifying project GHG emissions and reductions, establishing the permanence of GHG emission reductions, and others.
Estimating Carbon Dynamics in the Tropical Semi-Deciduous Forest of the Yucatan Peninsula
Modeling carbon (C) in Mexican forest ecosystems using process-based models is an important contribution to a methodology and protocol for assessing North American forest carbon dynamics, sponsored by the Commission for Environmental Cooperation and carried out by the Forest Services of Canada, USA, and Mexico, and their partner organizations.
Where do grassland birds winter?
Fifty-seven percent of North American grassland bird species are undergoing significant, long-term population declines. Almost 90% of grassland-obligate bird species breeding in the western Great Plains are migratory and fully 90% of these species overwinter in the Chihuahuan Desert.
Prairie Beef and Biodiversity
A lack of conservation tools and incentives to steward native prairie in Canada has placed a disproportionate cost for environmental stewardship on livestock producers managing natural grasslands. The Ranchers Stewardship Alliance Inc. (RSAI) has investigated conservation tools that would help distribute the cost of maintaining declining ecosystem services from native rangelands more proportionally among those who value and use those services.
A Proposal for Developing Desired Future Conditions for the Big Bend Reach of the Rio Grande
The aim of this report is to provide background information and a proposed operating framework that US and Mexican state and federal land and natural resource management agencies can use in making collaborative decisions relating to that portion of the Rio Grande that extends from its confluence with the Río Conchos, at Presidio, Texas, to […]
Conservation Assessment for the Big Bend-Río Bravo Region
The borderlands of the Chihuahuan Desert, in the Big Bend-Río Bravo (BBRB) region, have one of the highest levels of diversity and endemic species among the world’s arid and semiarid ecosystems. This large binational area, comprised by a total of eleven protected areas in Texas, Coahuila, and Chihuahua, offers a unique opportunity for conservation because of its isolation from human settlements and the unfragmented nature of its landscape. Private land conservation efforts underway in both countries add an important dimension to these efforts by extending the region’s conservation potential to include essential habitat for mammals, birds, aquatic and other species from the Davis Mountains and Marfa in the north, to the Sierra de Hechiceros and Lagunas de Sanchez y de Montoya in the west, the Devils River to the east, and the Sierra de Santa Rosa to the south.
Analysis of the Effects of Fire, Grazing, and the Distance to Wetlands on Grassland Bird Abundance
This background report assesses the effects of fire, grazing and wetlands on grassland bird abundance in National Wildlife Area (NWA) at Canadian Forces Base (CFB) Suffield. The data for this project were provided by Environment Canada (EC) and the Department of National Defence (DND).
North American Blue Carbon Scoping Study
This report examines the extent and carbon sequestration dynamics of blue carbon ecosystems in North America. The overlap of existing marine protected areas in North America with these coastal wetlands is explored in an effort to assess the current size of the blue carbon market in North America.
North American Grasslands Alliance
The North American Grasslands Alliance: A Framework for Change document lays a strong foundation to bring about the deep changes that are required for a continentally integrated planning and management approach to achieve lasting sustainability of the North American grasslands. It contains foundational principles, objectives and priorities to sustain working landscapes, conserve biodiversity, and support vibrant rural […]
North American Collaboration on Ecosystem Carbon Sources and Storagee
Poster presented at the North American Carbon Program All-Investigators meeting in Albuquerque, New Mexico February 6, 2013