Stakeholder contributions to conservation of threatened Northern Pine Snakes (Pituophis melanoleucus, Daudin, 1803) in the New Jersey Pine Barrens as a case study

The successful management and protection of endangered or threatened species generally falls to state agencies. This paper suggests that while governmental agencies provide the legal, regulatory, and management framework for snake conservation, it is often the universities, conservation organizations, consultants, and concerned citizens that conduct the research needed for conservation efforts. Identification of all the relevant stakeholders and their contributions is important for determining how to manage the threats and enhance population viability. Managing the efforts of volunteers is hampered by the need to protect the locations of sensitive nesting and hibernation habitat, while encouraging protection of the species overall. In this paper we provide a template of the stakeholder categories that are often involved in research, management, and conservation, and describe the types of agencies, organizations and people within each category and their major contributions, using research with Pine Snakes (Pituophis melanoleucus). This suite of stakeholders has been successfully involved with Pine Snake research for over 30 years, and helped with examining key environmental and habitat needs. The contributions are synergistic and additive, lending continuity of stakeholder involvement. We also suggest several stakeholder involvement actions that can be useful to a range of conservationists.