The California Natural Resources Agency, California Air Resources Board, and California Department of Food and Agriculture joined together to host a day-long symposium on how natural and working lands can contribute to the State’s newly established 2030 greenhouse gas emissions reductions goals.
The symposium, held at California Environmental Protection Agency headquarters in Sacramento, brought together representatives from academia, industry, and state and federal agencies to discuss how forests, rangelands, and agricultural lands can be managed, regulated, and incentivized to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and maximize carbon sequestration potential.
Notably, this is the first symposium the State has organized specifically to discuss natural and working lands as they relate to climate change. After many years of largely ignoring forested and other natural lands in the State’s carbon reduction strategy, Governor Brown, in his inauguration speech in January 2015, named natural and working lands as one of the “Five Pillars” of his Administration’s immediate plans for achieving California’s climate change goals. Since then, various State agencies have ramped up efforts to develop plans and policies to improve the management and utilization of natural lands.
Presentations from the symposium and the link for filing comments on the topic of natural and working lands can be accessed here.