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Priority Conservation Areas are designated to accelerate protection of key natural lands in the San Francisco Bay Region through purchase or conservation easements. While initially adopted as part of the Association of Bay Area Governments' FOCUS Program, Priority Conservation Areas have become part of Plan Bay Area, the regional plan that grew out of the California Sustainable Communities and Climate Protection Act of 2008 (CA SB 375, Steinberg). Priority Conservation Areas were nominated by local jurisdictions and non-profit conservation groups as areas of importance for conservation to retain and enhance the natural environment that is key to the quality of life enjoyed by the region's residents and visitors and the region's ecological diversity.Through the Priority Conservation Areas, conservation will be promoted by:Coordinating conservation efforts within a regional framework of near-term prioritiesProviding a strong platform on which to leverage public and private resourcesBuilding upon prior and existing land protection efforts and investmentsProviding opportunities for forging new partnershipsWhen available, shapefiles forwarded by PCA leads were directly incorporated into this feature set. If a shapefile was not available, map images submitted by the PCA lead were georeferenced and the boundary digitized for use in this feature set. |