FAQ

Since early 2024, the Salazar Center has engaged in conversation with actors from across this landscape to deepen our understanding of place and the challenges and opportunities it presents for new and different place-based conservation solutions. Staff have conducted informal interviews with more than three dozen individuals and organizations from both countries representing regional, national, and multinational interests, including funders, NGOs, on-the-ground groups big and small, Indigenous-led efforts, government agencies, and researchers. What we learned is that the North Atlantic is well-positioned 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 a number of 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. Still, there is huge 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. Several regional networks and collaboratives are connecting place-based groups in their conservation efforts across the landscape—but by no means do these initiatives 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.  

Despite a longstanding and robust track record of Western-science-oriented conservation in the region, such work has not been prioritized for funding at the federal level; according to Environment Funders of Canada’s 2022 Environmental Grants report, for example, the four Canadian provinces in this region receive just 9.4% of environmental funding compared to other Canadian provinces. Meaningful multinational conservation initiatives have seen some success (for example, 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.  

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

The North Atlantic Transboundary Landscape, as defined by the Salazar Center for the 2025 Cohort of the Peregrine Accelerator program, includes the states of Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, and a portion of New York and the provinces of Novia Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and a portion of Quebec, as well as the immediate coastal areas that bound them. The boundary of this landscape is drawn primarily in accordance with the New England-Acadian Forests ecoregion, one of three subregions of the Northeastern American Mixed Forests bioregion as defined by OneEarth, though it does not overlap with this ecoregion exactly; consideration was also given to the inclusion of Indigenous territories and to the Center’s desire to recruit a cohort with 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. The result is a landscape defined to uniquely suit the needs and aims of the Accelerator program.  

Yes. Pilot and phase-one projects with the potential to be extended in reach, scale, scope, and/or impact AND a demonstrable need for new or additional capacity are eligible. 

You can expect 1) to implement your ideas sooner and more effectively, by way of developing and refining an implementation plan for your project with clear milestones, metrics, and adaptive management strategy, supported by feedback from expert mentors and advisors; 2) an increased chance of getting your project funded, by way tailored fundraising training, strategy development, and introductions to prospective funders; and 3) an increased network of people and organizations in the target landscape, by way of a peer learning community comprising other teams, plus introductions to experts, new potential partners, and other communities. 

This Accelerator program is designed to provide seed funding plus tailored training, mentorship, and a regional peer learning community to help participants implement and amplify the impact of their proposed projects.

Once the application opens, submit all required materials via the online application portal before the deadline. We will offer two informational webinars, during which we will offer a demonstration of the online application portal and answer any questions you may have. More details coming soon. 

If you would like to be notified when the application opens, subscribe to receive email updates here by clicking the “Peregrine” interest topic.

Accepted participants in the Peregrine Accelerator should expect to dedicate 2-3 hours per week over the 6-month program, including workshops; one-on-one sessions with mentors; introductions to funders; one-on-one time with Salazar Center staff; and other curricular and networking elements. Much of this content will be delivered virtually. However, we will convene all participants in person at least once during the cohort period, for which participants’ expenses are covered by the Salazar Center. The program will conclude with a final presentation event. 

The Peregrine Accelerator builds on the success already realized through the Center’s 2020 Connectivity Challenge and the Thriving Cities Challenge in 2021. Five finalist teams were selected for the Connectivity Challenge, and one team was awarded $100,000 to implement its proposed solution; finalist teams did not receive non-monetary support or resources from the Center in 2020. In moving from the Connectivity Challenge to the Thriving Cities Challenge in 2021, and based in large part on guidance and feedback from a group of expert partners and advisors, the Center decided to make initial grant awards of $10,000 to each of 15 finalist teams and to develop a series of summer training sessions and mentorship opportunities. In contrast to the Connectivity Challenge, eight of fifteen finalist teams received implementation awards ranging from $35,000 to $100,000.

Through the Thriving Cities Challenge, the Center learned that there was a strong interest in and need for capacity-building for conservation innovation, and that the cohort approach to developing innovative solutions can pay off in stronger teams and proposals, as well as increased funding. The design of the Peregrine Accelerator program was shaped by these learnings and emphasizes team capacity-building and leadership development to an even greater degree than past Challenge programs. 

This program is all about accelerating the pace and scale of conservation innovations, and the peregrine falcon is the fastest animal in North America, with a range extending throughout the continent in both urban and wild environments. The “birds-eye” or aerial view of a falcon is also the perspective of the Center in its work to promote conservation and climate resilience across landscape and political boundaries.