The State Wildlife Action Plan, or SWAP, is a 10-year plan developed by each state to help guide conservation actions for fish, wildlife, habitats, and biodiversity. It serves as a blueprint for proactive conservation efforts, identifying Species of Greatest Conservation Need and outlining steps necessary to prevent their endangerment. Key to this effort is focusing on habitats to benefit all fish and wildlife, as well as the Hoosiers who live alongside them.
Explore Indiana’s SWAP online. The icons above can be used to navigate among regions, habitats, species, and opportunities. Find out what makes each region unique, which habitats rare species occur in, what threats are putting the most pressure on ecosystems, and how people benefit from healthy ecosystems.
- Conservation Requires a Plan
In 2000, the United States Congress recognized that individual states needed funding designed to benefit their variety of wildlife and their habitats. This funding was provided through State and Tribal Wildlife Grants, which currently provide about $965,000 per year to the Indiana Division of Fish, Wildlife, & Nature Preserves (DFWNP). To access this funding, each state develops and publishes a strategy for conservation that is approved by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. Indiana developed and revised a SWAP in 2006, 2015, and now in 2025. These SWAPs prioritized conservation actions that direct the work of all Indiana conservation partners, not just the Department of Natural Resources.
At its core, this plan uses the Conservation Standards method for strategic planning. A total of 80 partners from across the state worked to create regionally focused strategic plans that aimed to identify the ecosystems most in need of conservation, the pressures impacting those ecosystems, and strategies that would reduce those pressures through collective action.
This plan is a tool to be used, monitored, and adapted by anyone interested in conservation of habitats, species, and healthy ecosystems in Indiana.
- Conserving Indiana Together
For the 2025 SWAP revision, DFWNP developed regional workshops with partners to identify conservation goals for each region and ecosystem in the state. The focus of this collaborative approach was to work with available partners to co-create each regional plan, building on collective strengths and capacity to address bigger pressures on natural resources together. This work resulted in a list of opportunities that could impact the conservation of Indiana’s habitats and species.
Limitations imposed by timing, location, or existing connections may have impacted participation in the development of this SWAP; however, the SWAP blueprint encourages broadening connections with new partners and developing new ways to approach conservation in Indiana.
- One Health
Indiana’s SWAP takes a One Health approach, recognizing the interconnection among the health of wildlife, humans, domestic animals, and the ecosystems they share. The presented opportunities aim to improve ecosystem conditions and anticipate benefits for the health of all their inhabitants; however, the SWAP was designed to be flexible for partners to affect change where their resources allow, whether that means focusing on opportunities for ecosystem restoration, rare species conservation, or developing partnerships.
For more information, contact us:
SWAP@dnr.IN.gov
317-234-8440
