How land trusts, policymakers, and public agencies can achieve carbon goals through strategic forest protection
Aimed at helping practitioners and policymakers address climate change through strategic forest protection, a new guide provides leadership on how to achieve the Biden administration’s recently-announced plan: to conserve 30 percent of U.S. land and waters by the year 2030, to leverage natural climate solutions; protect biodiversity; and slow extinction rates, through carbon-friendly protection and management of conservation lands.
The guide, Meeting the Challenge of Climate Change: How Land Trusts, Policymakers, and Public Agencies Can Achieve Carbon Goals through Strategic Forestland Protection, provides criteria for the selection, completion, and successful management of land protection projects for the successful capture and storage of carbon.
Further Reading: 'Six Simple Steps'
A companion document to Meeting the Challenge of Climate Change recommends six simple steps for estimating carbon storage and sequestration on your land protection projects.
Developed in consultation with scientists and experts at American Forests, The Nature Conservancy, and the Land Trust Alliance, the knowledge distilled in the guide will be a resource for land trusts and government agencies seeking to decide where to invest limited land protection dollars.
This work also builds on OSI’s Resilient Landscapes Initiative (RLI), which helped the land trust community understand and protect “climate-resilient” lands likely to harbor diverse plants and animals, even as the climate changes. The RLI operated across the eastern U.S. from 2013 to 2020.
'Meeting the Challenge of Climate Change' Report
The new guide provides criteria for the selection, completion, and management of land protection projects, for the successful capture and storage of carbon.