| FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: April 15, 2021 CONTACT: [email protected] WASHINGTON, DC – ConservAmerica on Wednesday submitted public comments to the U.S. Department of Interior and other federal agencies on President Joe Biden’s directive to conserve at least 30 percent of America’s lands and waters by 2030. The letter, which voices general support for conserving America’s special places for future generations, provides foundational principles for any such initiative. These principles include recognizing the pivotal role of private landowners, collaborating with state and local stakeholders, and using market-based approaches. “While ConservAmerica supports the laudable goal of more conservation to sustain wildlife populations, protect biodiversity, and increase carbon sequestration – and believes that if designed properly, 30x30 is achievable – our primary concern relates to how the federal government will seek to achieve this ambitious goal,” the letter states. The Federal government owns roughly 640 million acres in the United States, including 47 percent of all land in the West. The vast majority of these lands are west of the Mississippi River, and in some states, including Oregon, Utah, Nevada, and Alaska, the majority of the land is federally held. Extending federal protection to new areas should be done through market-based policies and in collaboration with state and local officials, ConservAmerica urges in the comments. ConservAmerica cautions the administration against imposing more top-down federal regulations and locking away more lands under federal control. Such overreach would be counterproductive, spawning needless litigation and political fighting that will ultimately lead to the initiative’s failure. Interior officials need to consider how the 30x30 directive affects current land management policies that impact state economies and conservation programs. That includes efforts to curb oil and natural gas leasing on federal lands, which has long provided a revenue source for conservation. The federal Land and Water Conservation Fund program, for example, provides funding from three revenue streams associated with fossil fuel production for national parks, forests, wildlife refuges, recreation areas, and voluntary conservation on private land. “While the goal is more conservation, we are concerned that establishing an arbitrary empirical goal of 30 percent will focus implementation on simply amassing more federal land and restrictions and less on the quality of the conservation activity undertaken,” ConservAmerica officials write. ConservAmerica’s comment letter is available here. ConservAmerica is hosting an online discussion on Biden’s 30x30 plan today at 3 pm EST. Registration for the Zoom event is available here. ConservAmerica is a nonprofit organization that advocates for addressing the nation’s conservation, environmental and energy challenges through market-based approaches. |
