Biodiversity and Ecosystems Law and Policy
This tab includes strategies for how to avoid or reduce climate change impacts to ecosystems. It also includes any laws, legislation, regulations, agency guidance, and executive orders relevant to biodiversity and ecosystems.
Resources are automatically presented by rating, but can be sorted by date or title. Apply additional filters to narrow by resource type, state, region, impact, or jurisdictional focus.
50 results are shown below.
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Resource
June 18, 2015
A report from Restore America’s Estuaries (RAE), “Living Shorelines: From Barriers to Opportunities,” provides a national assessment of institutional barriers that are preventing broader use of living shorelines, and gives recommendations and strategies for progress.
Resource Category: Solutions
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May 2015
The Vermont Department of Forests, Parks and Recreation assessed the impacts of climate change on forests throughout the state, and developed the state’s first guide to forest adaptation. The report provides forest practitioners with a comprehensive review of adaptation strategies for current and projected climate change, as well as many policy-level strategies have been included in recognition of the connections between statewide policy and forest management.
Authors or Affiliated Users: James Horton, Matthew Langlais, Timothy Morton, David Paganelli, Nancy Patch, Sandra Wilmot
Resource Category: Planning
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February 2014
In collaboration with the U. S. Forest Service and California Landscape Conservation Cooperative (CA LCC), EcoAdapt has identified a suite of priority climate change adaptation strategies for focal ecosystems and wildlife species of the Sierra Nevada region of California including: Alpine and Subalpine Systems, Mountain Yellow-Legged Frogs, Yellow Pine/Mixed Conifer Systems, Red Fir Systems and Marten, Wet Meadows and Fens, and Oak Woodlands. After a vulnerability assessment process, draft implementation plans were developed for each of the focal resources, incorporating the priority adaptation actions.
Resource Category: Solutions
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2014
The National Fish, Wildlife and Plants Climate Adaptation Strategy is a framework to support adaptation and conservation of the country’s natural communities over the next five to 10 years (from 2013), based on climate change projections for the next century. The multi-partner strategy outlines a unified approach to maintaining the key terrestrial, freshwater and marine ecosystems needed to sustain fish, wildlife and plant resources under the accelerating impacts of climate change. This Taking Action progress report describes 50 projects that demonstrate implementation of a variety of actions recommended by the Strategy.
Resource Category: Solutions
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October 1, 2013
In April 2013, the Maryland General Assembly passed the Forest Preservation Act of 2013 (HB 706, approved by Governor Martin O’Malley on May 2, 2013 and effective October 1, 2013), which seeks to stop forest loss in the state and maintain the state’s existing 40 percent tree canopy cover by instituting a “No Net Forest Loss” policy. Instead of using regulations or maintenance requirements to prevent forest loss, the Act utilizes new and modified incentives for private landowners to conserve and preserve forestland.
Resource Category: Law and Governance
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November 2012
In 2005, Congress mandated that state fish and wildlife agencies develop State Wildlife Action Plans (SWAPs) that identified the species and habitats in greatest conservation need, key threats, and recommended actions - in order to receive federal funding through the State and Tribal Wildlife Grants Program. The Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies prepared a report with guidance focused on integrating climate change adaptation planning into SWAPs in 2009 - Voluntary Guidance for States to Incorporate Climate Change into State Wildlife Action Plans and Other Management Plans.
Resource Category: Planning
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April 2012
Washington’s 2012 Stream Habitat Restoration Guidelines, prepared for the Washington State Aquatic Habitat Guidelines Program, include a Climate Change Appendix that summarizes the science and impacts of climate change on stream habitat in Washington, and strategies for ensuring that stream habitat restoration efforts are designed to be resilient to climate change impacts. The purpose of the Guidelines is to promote process based natural stream restoration, rehabilitating aquatic and riparian ecosystems.
Resource Category: Solutions
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2011
To address climate change impacts on northern Minnesota, Michigan and Wisconsin forests, the ‘Northwoods Climate Change Response Framework’ was established in 2011. The project has involved more than 40 scientists and natural resource professionals collaborating to assess the vulnerability of forest ecosystems to climate change – developing the Framework for resource management, conservation, and collaboration in adaptation planning.
Resource Category: Solutions
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From the Partnership for the Delaware Estuary (PDE), the Delaware Estuary Living Shoreline Initiative (DELSI) is a pilot project designed to stabilize eroding shorelines of tidal marshes. PDE with Rutgers University has developed the "DELSI Tactic" of living shorelines which uniquely uses a combination of native wetland plants, natural structures, and intertidal shellfish to trap sediment and absorb waves. The DELSI Tactic provides an economical approach to communities that are struggling to combat the erosion of tidal marshes.
Resource Category: Solutions
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October 15, 2010
As the lead agency in Maryland for climate change adaptation efforts, the Maryland Department of Natural Resources (DNR) issued this policy to “provide direction and guidance regarding the Department’s investments in and management of land, resources and assets in the face of climate change.” The policy is “to make sound investments in land and facilities and to manage [DNR] assets and natural resources so as to better understand, mitigate and adapt to climate change.”
Resource Category: Law and Governance
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