Our committee is interested in promoting this unique area as an international research site. In particular, we encourage and support project proposals in these two priority areas:
- Describing ecological function and biodiversity in the Border Lakes Ecoregion (aka. the Heart of the Continent Region)
- Learning how people interact in the Border Lakes Ecoregion (aka. the Heart of the Continent Region): in spiritual, cultural, recreational, economic and ecological ways
We also prioritize projects that show:
- Incorporation of education, community outreach, and citizen science
- Environmental change, social change or economic restructuring
- Comparisons of processes or ecosystems in protected areas and areas of resource extraction
- Note: the 2009 World Wilderness Congress passed a resolution commending the work of HOCP in building cross border collaboration. The resolution specifically encourages Heart of the Continent Partnership to report back to the next World Wilderness Congress gathering on trans-boundary research and monitoring of climate change.