Funding Nature Not Paperwork - Policy and Programmatic Pathways to Speed Restoration Permitting
Leaders around the globe have committed to restoring 30% of the world’s degraded ecosystems but right now, the costs of permitting burn through up to ⅓ of a restoration project’s budget. We need money to go to Nature, not paperwork. Over the past two years, the Environmental Policy Innovation Center (EPIC) has quantitatively and qualitatively analyzed policies and processes related to permitting restoration projects (see summary in paper). One consistent theme in our research findings is that the permitting process presents significant challenges and often results in major project delays. The objective of this concept note is to showcase multiple pathways to speed permitting, along with excerpts from enabling policy text (in gray boxes). These examples could be tailored and replicated in other contexts.
Scroll down for our companion resources.
EPIC now has a suite of resources to help decision makers and influencers understand pathways to speed permitting for restoration projects.
Jan 2025 2-page brief that synthesizes common sources of delays, permit reforms and examples that have provided efficiencies for restoration projects. Decision makers and influencers can use this resource to identify the underlying source of permit delays, and consider how to direct future policy, programmatic and technological reforms for permitting.
Dec 2024 1-page case study of Virginia’s Permitting Enhancement and Evaluation Platform (PEEP). Amongst the dozens of policy and tech efforts we’ve tracked, PEEP is a gold star example of the potential of technology to dramatically shorten permit backlogs, with a 70% improvement in processing times reported.
Our continuously-updated database of permit streamlining policies and programs - with 86 entries as of Jan 2025.
