Map of the Southeast Blueprint in the Caribbean with shades of purple and gray across a blue and green basemap, focused on Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Blueprint 2025 will improve the priorities in the U.S. Caribbean for the first time since SECAS expanded consistent methods and indicators to Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands in Blueprint 2023.

As part of our revision cycle, SECAS staff have already started work on the next Blueprint update for 2025. It’s still too early to know exactly what improvements will make it into the final plan, but here’s a sense of some things we’re working on.

Indicator improvements
We have improvements cued up for terrestrial, freshwater, and marine indicators. These priority improvements are based on Blueprint user feedback and comments from the most recent workshops, as well as the availability of new data. Some of the new indicators we’re exploring are Caribbean mangrove migration, Gulf marine birds, and terrestrial imperiled species. Some of the existing indicators for potential improvement are grasslands and savannas, landscape condition, and Gulf migratory fish connectivity.

Better prioritization of lakes and reservoirs
We’ve been collaborating with the staff of the Midwest Conservation Blueprint on better ways to prioritize the open water areas of lakes and reservoirs. Part of that is a new indicator specifically targeting these important areas. We’ll also be experimenting with better methods for incorporating them into the Blueprint priorities.

Testing improved corridors methods
We’ll be testing out improved methods for corridors. In particular we’re going to look at how to better align the Blueprint corridors with more local connectivity efforts (e.g., the Florida Wildlife Corridor), how to improve the routing of terrestrial corridors in the U.S. Virgin Islands, and how to make the corridors more stable across Blueprint versions to facilitate on-the-ground implementation while still remaining responsive to landscape change. If everything works out, these improvements could make it into this update. If not, they’ll be fuel for later revisions!

Ensuring significant time for user support
Last year, for Blueprint 2024, we took on a little less for Blueprint improvements to free up extra time for Blueprint user support. Lots of folks really liked that, so we’ll be doing that again next year. Have a question about the Blueprint, or want to use it in your work to support a grant proposal or inform a conservation decision? User support staff are here to help (for free)!