The Canadian Council on Ecological Areas (CCEA) is pleased to announce that Jerrica Mann, a MSc. Candidate at the University of Northern British Columbia, is the recipient of the 2018 Stan Rowe “Home Place” Graduate Award for her research proposal “Climate Change Conscious Systematic Conservation Planning”.

Under the supervision of Pamela Wright, Jerrica will sharpen the focus of the systematic conservation planning framework through the explicit incorporation of a climate change lens. She will identify ways to overcome the substantial challenges of incorporating complex climate variables into conservation planning by using the systematic conservation planning framework, a variety of sophisticated spatial planning tools and publicly available climate change data. In doing so she will identify high priority areas for connectivity and conservation within the Peace River Break and produce a proposed protected areas network that meets targets for connectivity, size and representativeness, as well as promotes climate change resiliency in the region.