Expanding upon its track record for making the complex science of land protection accessible and implementable by all, OSI released a policy brief and ”how-to” guide aimed at helping land trusts, policymakers, and public agencies select the properties most likely to effectively fight climate change. The report contains easy-to-use criteria for managing successful land protection efforts for the capture and storage of carbon.
Along the Georgia coast, OSI and partners made historic headway in securing climate-critical lands with the official transfer of the Ceylon and Cabin Bluff properties to the State of Georgia. Together, these properties, at 26,000 acres, represent the largest conservation accomplishment in Georgia’s history and will play a crucial role in storing carbon and buffering the coast of Georgia from future sea-level rise.
Finally, with the publication of the Resilient Landscapes Initiative Retrospective, OSI officially completed an important chapter in its ongoing effort to empower land trusts to mobilize around the protection of resilient lands likely to harbor sensitive plants and animals, even as the climate changes.
From 2013 to 2020, the Resilient Landscapes Initiative provided grants totaling $11 million to conserve some 50,000 acres; integrated climate resilience science, developed by The Nature Conservancy, into 41 conservation plans by land trusts and public-private partnerships; and disseminated training materials and case studies to more than 1,300 practitioners.