Conservation Opportunity Areas

This approach was informed by efforts with other SEAFWA agencies and applied here in an attempt to align SWAP priorities across SEAFWA. As an initial draft for COAs, we identify habitat patches ≥ 100 acres that also falls within the Southeast Conservation Blueprint 2023. We use the Caribbean habitat patch size for small islands indicator, which represents natural habitat patches on small islands in the U.S. Caribbean that are unfragmented by roads, urban development, or agriculture. This Blueprint indicator uses LANDFIRE landcover and road data, mimicking Esri's intact habitat cores approach from their green infrastructure data.

Input data 

·       Caribbean Habitat Patch Size (Small Islands) (Southeast Blueprint Indicator 2023)

·       Southeast Conservation Blueprint 2023

General mapping steps 

We reclassified the Blueprint to reflect new values in multiples of 100. For example, instead of a value or 1 that reflects Blueprint priority connections, we reclassed the value to 100. We did the same with all other classes. We then used the raster calculator function in ArcGIS to identify areas where habitat patches ≥ 100 acres intersected with the Blueprint.

Further COA development 

Based on this analysis, there are 13,262 acres of habitat patches that are at least 100 acres in size and support Blueprint priority.