NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service today announced the release of the agency’s first comprehensive Mitigation Policy for Trust Resources, which it said would improve conservation through avoidance, minimization, and compensation for adverse impacts to natural resources while advancing clean energy, infrastructure, and environmental goals.
The policy will apply to projects subject to permit approvals and projects that receive NOAA funding or involve NOAA involvement.
In determining mitigation measures, NOAA says it will:
- Generally recommend or require avoiding adverse impacts to high value habitats;
- Use the best scientific information available;
- Apply a holistic landscape and/or seascape approach;
- Promote mitigation policies with a high probability of success;
- Consider climate change and climate resilience when evaluating and developing mitigation measures;
- Implement compensatory mitigation that is proportional to impacts to NOAA trust resources and offset those impacts to the full extent provided by NOAA authorities;
- Use preservation of intact habitat as compensation appropriately; and
- Collaborate with partner agencies and stakeholders
