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According to a new report by the The Conservation Fund, land conservationists are taking meaningful actions to reduce carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and protect natural systems against the unavoidable consequences of a warming planet. Lincoln Institute of Land Policy.
From the Great Plains of the United States, to the high altitude wetlands of Ecuador and the United States, land trusts are implementing nature-based, creative strategies to address climate change. The report From Ground Up: How Land Trusts and Conservancies Provide Solutions to Climate Change was written by Lincoln Institute experts James N. Levitt and Chandni Nakha. They provide a dozen examples of conservation organizations that can help adapt and mitigate climate change.
“Such organizations are working in more than 100 nations on six continents,” writes Levitt, director of the Lincoln Institute’s International Land Conservation Network, and Navalkha, the Lincoln Institute’s associate director of sustainably managed land and water resources. “They represent millions of engaged citizens working from Finland to Chile to pass our natural heritage on to future generations.”
The report examines how land trusts have responded to climate change in five areas. It includes examples of successful initiatives in water supply, stormwater management, buffering against sea-level rising, biodiversity conservation, carbon sequestration, and energy production.
The report details how The Nature Conservancy, (TNC), uses advanced geospatial tech to identify areas in the United States where wind farms will not pose a threat for birds or other wildlife. Site Wind Right draws on more 100 sources to map wind resources, wildlife habitats, infrastructure, as well as other relevant data. It identifies more than 90 million acres as suitable for wind turbines – enough land to generate wind power equal to the country’s entire electricity supply from all sources in 2018.
Based on these cases, Levitt & Navalkha synthesize the lessons learned. They offer five recommendations for those who want to address climate change through land conservancy: Empower civic sector initiatives that have an ambitious scope and scale; invest with clear strategies and measurable impacts; encourage broad collaborations; share science, technology, financing techniques; think long-term
“In the evolving struggle to rein in and cope with climate change globally, all sectors must join forces to find solutions that are sustainable, replicable and reliable,” the authors conclude.
The full report is available here Here.
