Earlier this year, Gabe Watson and EmmaLi Tsai participated in a workshop hosted by Defenders of Wildlife to help researchers create better maps at the intersection of environmental justice and conservation. Decisions from the workshop resulted in this user guide & website, which walks users through a more collaborate and inclusive approach to conservation that considers biodiversity, climate change, and environmental justice. To put the framework and shared principles into practice, the guide also features a case study using the National Wildlife Refuge System to show where future land acquisition should be prioritized.
At the Environmental Policy Innovation Center (EPIC), our goal is to advance ecological restoration at scale, yet permitting costs consume up to ⅓ of project budgets. We need money to go to nature, not paperwork. Over the past two years, EPIC has quantitatively and qualitatively analyzed policies and processes related to restoration project permitting. Here we provide a case study of adoption of e-permitting technology that ameliorated many permitting bottlenecks.
Tim Male, Executive Director of EPIC, co-wrote an article in Ecosystem Marketplace with Mariana Sarmiento and Charles Bedford on how to close the biodiversity finance gap.
How could Maryland legislators build a sandbox for nature to accelerate restoration?
The US Department of Agriculture has contracted at least seven RCPP projects that used performance-based payments to buy environmental outcomes. This report profiles their challenges and successes.
Sand County Foundation and the Environmental Policy Innovation Center evaluate the successes, challenges, and immediate opportunities for watershed partnerships in the Midwest.
A Balancing Act: Optimizing Payment Schedules in Environmental Pay for Success Contracts
Maryland Forest Stewardship Disalignment Report
An analysis of incentives driving forest management decisions by Maryland landowners and the current state of their coordination
Maryland’s Conowingo Pay for Success Program Preliminary Information
Procurement doesn’t need to be a choke point
Case Study: Modernizing Restoration - Advancing restoration benefits tracking
Biodiversity Net Gain: Understanding the Most Ambitious Biodiversity Policy in the World
Chesapeake Currency: A current snapshot of private investment flowing into watershed conservation and restoration
Pay for Success: Analyzing and Evaluating an Emerging Way of Government Contracting
Pay for Success 101 Resource Guide
Comment Letter on the National Nature Assessment
The Time it Takes for Restoration: An Analysis of Mitigation Banking Instrument Timelines
Moving Wildlife
Purchasing Environmental Progress
Tribal Compensatory Mitigation
WOTUS Explainer
Promoting Tribal Roles in Providing Compensatory Mitigation Offsets
Clean Water Act: Priorities for Offset Policies that Benefit the Environment and Communities
A look at four new natural resource procurement bills
Delivering Faster Restoration with Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) Funding
