Regional & Global Nature Tourism

Increasingly, rural community development involves regional development helping communities look beyond their borders and capture the opportunity present when rural areas collaborate on common issues and concerns.

The links below emphasize regional and global perspectives of rural development.

• Collaborating Across Fences: Law's Role in Managing Wildlife Resources in Ranch Country

  The lecture by Anthony Schutz from the UNL College of Law provided groundbreaking insights and legal analysis for how private ranches on the plains can work together to provide many of the same benefits public lands provide, while maintaining private property rights, the ranching heritage and livestock production.

• The World's Temperate Grasslands: Towards a Strategy For Their Conservation and Protection

  The Nebraska Rural Initiative was co-sponsor of the fourth annual lecture series on grassland conservation hosted by the Grassland Foundation on April 12, 2009. This lecture about the world's temperate grasslands is by Bill Henwood of the IUCN/WCPA Grasslands Protected Area Task Force. Click on the underlined link above to see and hear his lecture. (This will open and play with Windows Media player.)

• Global Developments in Private Conservation: Do They Apply to the Northern Great Plains?

  The Nebraska Rural Initiative was co-sponsor of the fourth annual lecture series on grassland conservation hosted by the Grassland Foundation on April 12, 2009. This lecture about the private conservation across the globe is by Jefferey Langholz. Click on the link above to see and hear his lecture. (This will open and play with Windows Media player.)
  
  

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  Conservation & Economic Lessons Learned From Managing NamiRand

  The Nebraska Rural Initiative was co-sponsor of the fourth annual lecture series on grassland conservation hosted by the Grassland Foundation on April 12 & 13, 2009. This lecture about Namibia, where 40% of the land is in conservancy, describes that nation's nature reserves and conservation efforts. The lecture is by Nils Odendaal of the NamiRand Nature Reserve. Click on the link above to see and hear his lecture. (This will open and play with Windows Media player.)
• The Switzer Ranch & Nature Reserve: A Nebraska Ranch in Transition

  The Nebraska Rural Initiative was co-sponsor of the fourth annual lecture series on grassland conservation hosted by the Grassland Foundation on April 12 & 13, 2009. This panel discussion about the Swizer ranch included panelists from the ranch amd from Calamus Outfitters, a grasslands consultant formerly of the World Wildlife Federation, and an economics intern from UNL's School of Natural Resources. Click here to see and hear this panel discussion. (This will open and play with Windows Media player.)

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  Can the Path be Altered? Salvaging and Renewing Communities of the Rural Plains

  The Nebraska Rural Initiative was co-sponsor of the second annual lecture on "Grassland Conservation and Sustainable Communities" hosted by the Grassland Foundation on April 12, 2007. Dr. Larry Swanson, Director of the Center for the Rocky Mountain West, delivered the lecture encouraging quick action to save rural communities from accelerating population decline. For detailed information on his presentation, click the above link.
• Wildlife & Sustainable Rural Development in Namibia: Are There Applications to the Northern Great Plains?

  Chris Weaver, the Managing Director of the World Wildlife Fund-Namibia program, delivered this Third Annual Grassland Foundation lecture dealing with the development of various conservation models in Namibia that have led to a large increase in wildlife numbers and an improvement in rural livelihoods from hunting, nature-based tourism and other activities. To download his lecture, click the above link to the Grassland Foundation website.