The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy today announced the release of a report on “Opportunities to Accelerate Nature Based Solutions: A Roadmap for Climate Progress, Thriving Nature, Equity, and Prosperity,” calling it “high time for nature-based solutions to be used and scaled as critical tools in the fight against climate change, nature loss and inequity” and noting how existing policies and regulations “can create unintended hurdles” to implementing nature-based solutions that it says could provide up to 30% of needed emissions reductions.
The report focuses on strategic recommendations for federal agencies to update federal policies and guidance to enable nature-based solutions (including through updated permitting processes or review methods), integrate nature-based solutions into financial assistance and incentive programs and increase related interagency coordination and application process streamlining, require use of nature-based solutions in federal facilities standards, enter into nature-based solutions workforce training partnerships, and prioritize nature-based solution-related research, innovation, knowledge, and adaptive learning.
The report cites coastal habitat conservation, protection, and restoration as examples of nature-based solutions, saying such actions can help remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, reduce coastal erosion and flooding, and provide opportunity for activities including recreation and fishing as well as jobs and a sense of place and identity.
Elsewhere, it notes opportunities to use nature-based solutions in the coastal and ocean context (including through oyster reef, mangrove, and marsh conservation and restoration), cites the National Marine Fisheries Services’ use of programmatic environmental reviews of coastal habitat restoration activities as an example of an accelerated process for implementing nature-based solutions, and highlights co-management agreement of the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument as an example of an option for increasing engagement with indigenous knowledge holders.
In conjunction with the report’s release, OSTP also released a “Nature-Based Solutions Resource Guide: Compendium of Federal Examples, Guidance, Resource Documents, Tools and Technical Assistance” that includes 30 examples of nature-based solutions as well as a summary and links to federal resources, tools, guidance, and technical assistance related to nature-based solutions.
Examples of nature-based solutions include NOAA grants for the Pointe au Chien oyster restoration project and wetland restoration in Hawaii, a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers restoration project on Deer Island off the Mississippi coast and construction of a levee on the South San Francisco Bay shoreline, the Federal Highway Administration’s sponsorship of a coastal highway resilience project in Delaware, and the Environmental Protection Agency’s work on a shoreline project in the San Francisco Bay area.
Lastly, the White House released a fact sheet highlighting federal actions to implement nature-based solutions, including establishment of a new technical working group on “Frontiers of Benefit Cost Analysis,” ongoing development of a strategy to develop natural capital accounts that will “place nature on the nation’s balance sheet and allow regular tracking of the economic benefits that investments in nature-based solutions provide,” EPA implementation of its national estuary, geographic, and Gulf hypoxia programs, and NOAA investment in natural infrastructure projects.
In a blog post, OSTP Presidential Fellow Ella Clarke, Deputy Director for Climate and Environment Jane Lubchenco, and Deputy Director for Energy and Chief Strategist for the Energy Transition Dr. Sally Benson called nature-based solutions “key” to conserving 30% of U.S. lands and waters by 2030.
