The Landscape:

To address the macro-level environmental challenges of biodiversity loss and climate change and not just the micro-level barriers to conservation project implementation, the Accelerator specifically supports target regions that pose significant opportunities to contribute to national and global targets for biodiversity and climate change, advance community well-being, and address environmental inequities and injustice. At the same time, the program invests in teams whose proposed projects are designed to deliver co-benefits along these same dimensions of biodiversity, climate resilience, and thriving communities.  

In alignment with these characteristics, the Salazar Center has chosen to focus on the North Atlantic Transboundary Landscape for the 2025 Accelerator program. This landscape is defined primarily in accordance with the New England-Acadian Forests ecoregion, as outlined by OneEarth. Additional consideration was given to including Indigenous territories and the Salazar Center’s desire to recruit a cohort with a shared ecology and common socio-cultural ground but from a large enough swath to bring together groups from two countries in a context where they might not otherwise interact. 

Since early 2024, Salazar Center staff have conducted informal interviews with more than three dozen individuals and organizations from both countries who represent regional, national, and multinational interests, and who include funders, NGOs, and on-the-ground groups, both big and small, Indigenous-led efforts, government agencies, and research. What we have learned is that the North Atlantic is ripe to benefit from a program like the Peregrine Accelerator and that the Salazar Center will be able to recruit a diversity of well-poised project proposals while at the same time building upon and complementing several relevant efforts and networks already gaining traction in the region.  

The North Atlantic Transboundary Landscape is highly fragmented, both in terms of ecological connectivity and jurisdiction, and is characterized by a high proportion of privately owned lands. At the same time, it presents significant potential to increase landscape connectivity, reverse biodiversity loss, and achieve targets like 30×30 in the region. Momentum is building around these efforts in both countries and across the international boundary, and a number of regional networks and collaboratives are connecting place-based groups in their conservation efforts across the landscape. Still, these initiatives by no means represent all the groups, communities, and rightsholders undertaking important conservation work in the North Atlantic, and many lack the capacity and resources to align their on-the-ground efforts beyond the local scale and in partnership with others in the region. 

Despite a longstanding and robust track record of traditional conservation in the region, such work has not been prioritized for funding at the federal level in either country. For example, in 2022, the four Canadian provinces in this region received just 9.4% of environmental funding compared to other Canadian provinces; a 2024 report from Environmental Funders of Canada confirms that this trend has continued in the region. Meaningful multinational conservation initiatives have seen some success (e.g., with Resolution 40-3, passed in 2016), but not nearly to the extent that has been realized in the Yellowstone to Yukon (Y2Y) region, another important transboundary landscape between the U.S. and Canada. National regulations and policies continue to present incompatibilities between the two countries in the North Atlantic, with sovereign Tribal and First Nations’ leadership and participation often excluded from the conversation altogether.   

In sum, the North Atlantic Transboundary Landscape represents an array of complex challenges—as well as opportunities—to enhance ecological and community health. The Peregrine Accelerator program will help position selected project teams to deliver solutions that benefit both people and nature across the landscape. 

The Impact:

The proposed solutions must be designed to deliver co-benefits for nature and people, specifically regarding biodiversity, climate resilience, community well-being, and environmental equity and justice.

Participants in the 2025 Cohort can expect to implement their ideas sooner and more effectively by developing and refining an implementation plan for the project with clear milestones, metrics, and adaptive management strategy, supported by feedback from expert mentors and advisors. Participants benefit from an increased chance of funding their project through tailored fundraising training, strategy development, and introductions to prospective funders. Exposure to a peer learning community comprising other teams, plus introductions to experts, new potential partners, and others, means that the learning experience doesn’t stop at the end of the six-month program.