Climate change is happening, and the land trust community has a critical role to play in addressing it. Download the report.
Over the past four decades, the Open Space Institute has protected more than 2.2 million acres, of which 45,000 were protected as part of our Resilient Landscape Initiative. This initiative supports land trusts from Maine to Alabama to integrate climate science into conservation. The Land Trust Alliance, which works to save the places people love and need by strengthening land conservation across America, has launched an ambitious Land and Climate Program to empower the land trust community to help mitigate climate change by doing what we’ve always done: conserving more land and stewarding it effectively.
Our two organizations are partnering to help land trusts actively plan for climate change and communicate effectively about the benefits of protecting land with climate in mind.
Talking about climate change results in increased visibility, relevance, and fundraising for land trusts. This report from the Land Trust Alliance and the Open Space Institute aims to provide helpful guidance on how to connect about this issue, and information to help land trusts respond to the greatest challenge of our time. Climate change communication done correctly no longer carries the risk of alienating communities. Moreover, we hope to inspire and arm land trusts to communicate the valuable role they play in both mitigating climate change and in addressing local impacts of climate change, thus offering a source of hope and attracting new land conservation supporters.