the nature conservancy, conservation easements and climate change environmental law i fall 2008
TRANSCRIPT
The Nature Conservancy, Conservation Easements and
Climate ChangeEnvironmental Law I
Fall 2008
Two Conceptual Linkages:
• Large-scale impact assessment based on biodiversity, conservation biology
• Role of land use in climate change
TNC: Acting Globally and Locally To Protect
Biodiversity
TNC: “Conservation by Design”
TNC’s Approach to Climate Change
Adaptation
• Conserve areas that will help provide resiliency• Acquire and restore properties to support migration
of plants, animals and ecosystems• Incorporate climate change into planning process,
priorities
Florida Keys
Meso-American ReefMicronesia
Coral Triangle
Indian Ocean
Hawaii
Resilient Marine Protected Areas
Early emissions reductions are better than later ones—they
“keep on giving”
• Stop global deforestation• Double vehicle fuel
economy• Double coal power
efficiency • Increase wind power by
50 times• Increase global ethanol
production by 50 times• Increase solar power by
700 times• Cut vehicle use in half
• Capture carbon from 3/4ths of current coal plant capacity
• Cut emissions from buildings and appliances by a quarter
• Double current nuclear capacity• Replace current coal power capacity
with natural gas• Adopt ‘conservation tillage’ for all
agriculture
Pick seven by 2050
What Wedges Look Like:
Trees are loaded with carbon
But logging releases a lot of carbon
Are forests that big a deal?
• An area the size of England, Scotland and Wales combined is deforested every year.
• Deforestation produces approximately 20% of greenhouse gas emissions.
Presently, carbon stored in trees has a zero or negative
dollar value• Letting the forest grow is a “pure public good”—it benefits everybody by sequestering carbon, and you can’t recapture the economic benefit of that service.
• Private forest lands are assessed on the value of the standing timber, at current market rates—an incentive to cut and cash out.
• “Forestry offsets” could create economic incentives to refrain from logging.
Tools to reduce or reverse deforestation
• Direct purchase of property interests (fee, conservation easement, timber rights)
• Stewardship outreach (work with landowners to use more sustainable harvesting practices)
• Mobilizing government to create better forest protection incentives
• Raising funds to use for promoting ecological resiliency, carbon sequestration, and forest stewardship
Strengths of TNC Approach
• Landscape-scale planning, applied globally• Based on “good science”• Networks stakeholders in partnerships• “Business-friendly,” nonconfrontational• Generates substantial monies• Context for working toward sustainability
(integrating economy, ecology, society)
Promoting Corporate Responsibility
Potential Weaknesses
• Greenwashing• False sustainability• Self-dealing• Bad or ineffective partnerships• Enabling tax evasion games• Lack of follow-through on stewardship• Failure to follow through on stewardship
• Growing popularity of land conservancies—are we “suboptimizing,” checkerboarding, over-privatizing, undermining the tax base?