By Vicky Hoover
Since the California Natural Resources Agency (CNRA) back in April released their final “Pathways to 30x30” blueprint for how California will achieve the ambitious goal of protecting 30% of our lands and waters by 2030, our Sierra Club California 30x30 Task Force is moving to the next phase of our campaign: how we will influence implementation of the state’s 30x30 plan toward the strongest protection possible.
To understand better how CNRA wants to proceed on implementation, our 30 by 30 task force is taking a close look at the “Ten Pathways to 30 by 30” described in the main “Pathways” Document.
What ARE their ten listed action steps? YOU can learn about them with us!
The first emphasis is "Regional"; that is conservation needs to be tailored to a specific part of California — no one size fits all
Second, comes the call for "strategic land acquisitions". Yes, clearly acquiring key conservation lands is essential and may underpin many other ways to make progress. However, it generally costs the most money: we can't buy up all the land we wish to.
Third, voluntary "conservation easements". Buying lands isn't always possible — due to unavailability or expense — but easements across lands, for corridors, can sometimes substitute.
Fourth: Better conservation of lands that are "already public". Yes, how about working for stronger designations on our public lands, such as more national monuments or wilderness on federal lands? Or maybe more state wildernesses? And more protective management of those lands.
Fifth: Institutionalize "advance mitigation". This one always sounds medicinal to me — a bit formidable — but it just means that because some necessary development projects will have impacts we can't prevent, we need to assure durable protection for more than just 30 percent of lands. We need to make up for unavoidable harm.
Sixth: Restoration and stewardship. Of course! It's not all new lands to protect: we must work to restore ecological integrity to damaged lands and provide strong stewardship overall.
Seventh: Strengthen coordination among governments. Absolutely vital to get the feds and state lands managers to cooperate and work together (they have done little enough of that in the past).
Number eight: Invest for maximum conservation. Wise move. If you're spending money on conservation, do it in a way that gets the most bang for the buck.
Number nine: Complementary conservation measures. Ok, that means not every conservation action will yank up the total of lands protected BUT can help in other useful ways to boost effectiveness of our 30x30 measures.
Finally, the tenth pathway: Evaluate, monitor and adapt. Check to make sure what you're doing is really helping. If not, adapt to make it better.
Not a bad list. What is working in OUR Chapter? Well for one thing, one of the Bay Chapter's biggest priorities, Point Molate, got a big boost from the State Budget process this year (read more here).
And what else is the 30 by 30 Task Force up to?
Coming up, we are supporting lobbying efforts around the State budget to secure more funds for 30x30, refining each Chapter’s local conservation priorities to zero in on those priorities ripe for action now; and we’re ramping up our campaign's communications efforts to get the word out about our work. Here are some useful links:
To get involved in your Chapter, contact Alan Carlton at carltonal@yahoo.com.
Vicky Hoover is co-chair of the Sierra Club California 30x30 Task Force (vicky.hoover@sierraclub.org)