©Casey Horner

What is CPLUS?

The goal of CPLUS is to generate a landscape plan that is supported by stakeholders, backed by science, and aligned with global goals for nature. To achieve this outcome, CPLUS provides a framework that facilitates stakeholder engagement and a decision-support tool that automates the creation of landscape plans based on stakeholder priorities.

CPLUS is designed to be flexible so that it meets local needs, whether it's at a landscape or a national scale.

The CPLUS Framework

The CPLUS framework is a five-step process that supports teams to design, socialize, fund, and deliver locally relevant, science-backed plans to scale nature-based solutions within a landscape. 

Following the CPLUS Framework, you'll work with stakeholders in your region to understand what nature-based solutions are already being implemented in the region and what factors should be considered when scaling activities, like biodiversity, finance, climate mitigation potential, and livelihoods.

The process can span six to twelve months. The timeline may be accelerated or delayed depending on team capacity, availability, and budget. 

  • Identify individuals to lead the evaluation team, determine the scope of the assessment, set a dedicated budget and realistic timeline, and begin mapping stakeholders to be consulted.

     

  • Discuss the landscape vision with stakeholders.

    Select activities (i.e., projects or interventions) that contribute to the vision and that should be considered in the CPLUS evaluation. 

  • Collect datasets that can be used to evaluate the feasibility and impact of various activities.  

    Depending on the stakeholder engagement strategy, this may include a workshop to introduce CPLUS to a wide set of stakeholders and gather input on data sources.

  • Engage stakeholders to understand local priorities. Use the CPLUS tool to develop landscape plans based on identified priorities. 

    We highly recommend completing Steps 4 and 5 during an in-person workshop. 

  • Evaluate landscape plan(s) to determine next steps.

    Follow up steps may include continued data collection or a plan to socialize landscape plans with stakeholders or potential funders.

     

The CPLUS Tool

The CPLUS Tool is a QGIS plugin that creates landscape action plans on-demand, allowing your team to visualize how changing priorities (e.g., biodiversity, freshwater, climate, livelihoods) affect your landscape action plan.

The CPLUS tool creates customized reports for each Landscape Plan, providing valuable insights to inform planning, collaboration, funding, and implementation. This includes: 

  • Maps identifying priority areas for implementing each activity, based on user priorities; 

  • Maps identifying the most suitable areas for implementing each activity, based on user priorities;  

  • Estimated implementable area for each activity;  

  • Estimated carbon mitigation potential of each activity; 

  • Estimated costs and revenues of each activity, based on the priority implementation areas.