Climate Adaptation Leadership Awards

The nominations for the Climate Adaptation Leadership Awards, hosted by the Climate Adaptation Strategy group, are now available.

Categories

For the 2019 Award year, each Award nomination must identify the category that best describes the individual or organization being nominated. Awards and honorable mentions are expected in each of these categories depending on the nominations received.

• Federal government
• State or Local government
• Tribal government
• Other organizations (for example, industry, environmental, academic, nongovernmental organization)
• Broad Partnership Organizations (co-led efforts)
• Individual Leadership
• Student Leadership

Eligibility

• Both government (federal, state, tribal, and local) and non-governmental organizations are eligible.
• Individuals and organizations may submit nominations. Self-nominations and third party nominations are acceptable.
• Individuals and organizations should be based in the United States and focus primarily on U.S. resources.
• Individuals and organizations can represent sectors other than natural resources (air, forests, soils, water, fish, wildlife and plants), but must demonstrate how their work has tangible impacts on natural resources conservation.
• Nominations may be for efforts that are ongoing or recently completed.
• Previous award recipients and honorable mentions may be nominated again if their work is significantly different than the work for which they were originally recognized.

Nomination Questions

The 2019 Award Nomination requests the following information:

• Your organization and contact information, including your relationship to the nominee.
• Contact information for the nominee.
• Category in which the nominee should be considered.
• Geographic scope of the nominee’s work.
• Ecosystems addressed by the nominees work.
• A succinct summary of the work (less than 200 characters).
• Which NFWPCAS goals are addressed by the work? (See Criteria, above.)
• A description of how the NFWPCAS goals have been implemented by the project or advanced by the individual, group, or organization nominated (less than 600 characters)
• A description of how the work meets the following criteria: Proactive, Innovative / Transformative, Results / Effectiveness, Replication, and Collaborative (all defined above)
• Up to three references.

Criteria

The Climate Adaptation Leadership Award for Natural Resources is designed to recognize efforts that demonstrate outstanding leadership for advancing the resilience of the nation’s living natural resources. Projects must address one or more of the goals identified in the Strategy.

• Goal 1: Conserve habitat to support healthy fish, wildlife, and plant populations and ecosystem functions;
• Goal 2: Manage species and habitats to protect ecosystem functions and provide sustainable commercial, subsistence, recreational and cultural use;
• Goal 3: Enhance capacity for effective management;
• Goal 4: Support adaptive management through integrated observation and monitoring and use of decision support tools;
• Goal 5 Increase knowledge and information on impacts and responses of fish, wildlife, and plants;
• Goal 6: Increase awareness and motivate action to safeguard fish, wildlife, and plants; and
• Goal 7: Reduce non-climate stressors to help fish, wildlife, plants, and ecosystems.

Nominations will be reviewed and ranked based on the following criteria:

• PROACTIVE:  Promotes preparation and response in ways that advance the resilience of natural resources in a changing climate.
• INNOVATIVE/TRANSFORMATIVE:  Develops and/or applies innovative tools/approaches to advance the resilience of natural resources in a changing climate.
• RESULTS/EFFECTIVENESS:  Employs highly effective proven strategies and/or obtains results in improving resilience of natural resources and/or resource-dependent communities to a changing climate.
• REPLICATION:  The effort is being replicated elsewhere or has high potential for replication (e.g., across regions, sectors or nation-wide).
• COLLABORATIVE:  Demonstrates outstanding collaboration to advance the resilience of natural resources in a changing climate.

2019 Nomination Period

Nominations are due by 5:00 pm PST on Saturday, May 18.

Contact wildlifeadaptationstrategy@fws.gov with questions.

Sponsorship

Led by the Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies, the Award is given out each year in collaboration with partners including the USDA Forest Service, USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and others.