Selected Policy & Funding Resources

This report provides a roadmap with five strategic recommendations for federal agencies to unlock the potential of nature-based solutions and highlights bold Executive Office of the President actions designed to pave the way. Importantly, these recommendations position the United States to prioritize nature-based solutions as go-to options in fighting climate change, nature loss and inequities.

The recommendations in this report are some of the best opportunities we have to meet climate goals and grow climate-ready communities, economies, and sectors. All have a role to play in turning these recommendations into action. President Biden and his National Climate Task Force are in a position to act boldly and lead adoption of these recommendations, advancing naturebased solutions as powerful tools that the nation and the world need now.

This brief article links to two October 2022 reports CAP issued that assess the ways in which missed opportunities in implementing federal resilience programs exemplify the challenges facing rural communities.

Our lands are a critical yet underutilized sector in California’s fight to achieve carbon neutrality and build resilience to the impacts of climate change. Healthy land can sequester and store carbon emissions, limit future carbon emissions into the atmosphere, protect people and nature from the impacts of climate change, and build resilience to future climate risks. Unhealthy lands have the opposite effect – they release more greenhouse gases than they store, increase climate risks to people and nature, and are more vulnerable to future climate change impacts.

This Strategy:

• Defines California’s eight natural and working landscapes.

• Describes how these lands can deliver on our climate change goals.

• Highlights priority nature-based climate solutions to address the climate crisis.

• Explores opportunities for regional climate smart land management.

• Identifies options to track nature-based climate action and measure progress.

• Outlines nearly 200 opportunities to scale climate smart land management across regions and sectors in California.

This paper identifies priority actions that California Governor Gavin Newsom's Administration can take to protect our parks, public lands, and waterways for the enjoyment of current and future generations.

A companion letter to the Resources Legacy Fund's policy recommendations to California Governor Gavin Newsom.