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?