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Human Dimensions of Conservation Planning

The field of research focusing on "Human Dimensions" seeks to understand society's attitudes and behaviors as it relates to how we maintain, protect, and enhance natural resources. It does so by applying data and information from social sciences to biological resource issues to explain why people value certain resources and the benefits they receive from those resources.

Conservationists recognize the critical need of integrating human values into natural resource management and planning to create more sustainable landscapes for wildlife and human communities. The AppLCC has been at the forefront among LCCs in delivering a suite of tools, resources, and subject-matter expert discussions on promising approaches to engage society, to help facilitate incorporating human values and behaviors into natural resource and land-use decisions. The framework supporting the human dimension section of this web portal integrates both natural and cultural resource conservation into landscape planning to inform management actions and decisions across the region.

Major navigation or thematic areas focus on:


  • Nature and Society that presents the shared "lessons learned" from conservationists on their work to engage individuals and communities in a dialogue, participation, and demonstrations of the many values and benefits that natural ecosystems provide to human communities, as well as provided habitats for wildlife and aquatic animal communities.
  • Urban Initiatives focuses on areas and opportunities available to our city communities to to experience the nature first-hand in the unique places within and surrounding our ever-expanding urban communities. It also highlights events and approaches to engage Urban populations in exploring the wonders of nature found in and around cities and towns.
  • Cultural & Heritage considers the shared behaviors and perceptions of a group of people as it relates to natural resources. Culture is revealed through traditions, folklore, arts, and other aspects of behavior. It also presents the rich heritage legacy of both natural and cultural resources that are a vibrant aspect of the Appalachian landscape. Users can find information and resources that pertain to the National Park Service Natural Heritage Areas - places where natural, cultural, and historic resources combine to form a cohesive, nationally important landscape - as well as where these Heritage Areas are found across the Appalachian LCC region.
  • Socio-Economic presents information on how economic activity affects and is shaped by natural resources. This section includes resources developed through the "Southern Appalachian Man and the Biosphere" foundation and other efforts to promote the environmental health and stewardship of natural, economic, and cultural resources across the Appalachian geography.


“One of the anomalies of modern ecology is the creation of two groups, each of which seems barely aware of the existence of the other. One studies the human community, almost as if it were a separate entity, and calls its findings sociology, economics and history. The other studies the plant and animal community and comfortably relegates the hodge-podge of politics to the liberal arts. The inevitable fusion of these two lines of thought will constitute the outstanding advance of the present century.” Aldo Leopold, 1935.