In conjunction with President Biden’s remarks this afternoon at the White House Conservation in Action Summit being held today in Washington, DC, the White House today announced a series of conservation and restoration actions.
In addition to the establishment of two onshore national monuments in Nevada and Texas, the following ocean-related actions are also being taken:
- President Biden is directing Commerce Sec. Gina Raimondo to consider initiating a national marine sanctuary designation within 30 days that would expand protections around the Pacific Remote Islands in an action that would conserve 777,000 square miles (including the existing ~495,000 square mile Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument). The White House noted that the designation process would allow NOAA to further explore the region’s scientific, cultural, and ancestral linkages “and tailor its management accordingly.”
- The White House said that if designated, this action “would ensure the U.S. will reach the President’s goal of conserving at least 30% of ocean waters under American jurisdiction by 2030”
- Release of the Ocean-Climate Action Plan (OCAP), which the White House called “a groundbreaking roadmap to harness the power of the ocean to advance immediate, transformational steps to protect ocean health and address the climate crisis” (see below for additional details)
- Release of White House Council on Environmental Quality Guidance for Federal Departments and Agencies on Ecological Connectivity and Wildlife Corridors to promote greater connectivity across terrestrial, marine, and freshwater habitats and across airspaces to sustain biodiversity and enable wildlife adaptation to environmental changes
- Guidance notes that connectivity and wildlife corridors should be considered in areas including energy development planning and permitting and energy infrastructure management, ocean planning, port management and development, transportation planning and use management, and recreation and tourism management (see below for additional details)
- Release of the 2022 America the Beautiful Annual Report to update progress on achieving conservation of 30% of U.S. lands and waters by 2030 (see below for additional details)
- President Biden is directing Interior Sec. Deb Haaland and Commerce Sec. Gina Raimondo to convene a public process to rename the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument and potentially the Islands as well
The White House announcement also cited a series of other actions taken recently to protect “nationally-significant lands and waters across the country,” including decisions to restore commercial fishing prohibitions in the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts National Monument and indefinitely withdraw 2.8 million acres in the Beaufort Sea from future oil and natural gas leasing.
Ocean Climate Action Plan
The Ocean Climate Action Plan includes actions and objectives to create a carbon-free future, accelerate nature-based solutions, and enhance community resilience to ocean change, including:
- Expand marine protected areas, including actions to:
- Within 6 months-2 years, foster ecologically-connected MPA networks that promote climate resilience and adaptation, and work with communities to identify and prioritize areas with high ecological, biodiversity, and carbon sequestration/storage value for additional conservation
- Within 6 months-2 years, support new research and ongoing monitoring to better understand relationships between climate-readiness and MPA size, level of protection, and enabling conditions
- Within 6 months-2 years, ensure MPA management plans address current conditions and future climate effects through adaptive management
- Increase offshore wind and marine energy, with actions including:
- Publication of Offshore Wind Leasing Schedule that includes succession of lease sales supportive of deploying 30 gigawatts of offshore wind by 2030 (to be updated at least once every 2 years)
- Within 6 months, develop recommendations report to identify coordinated solutions to transmission challenges, with subsequent coordination in support of implementation
- Within 6 months, initiate new research to develop technologies that optimize offshore wind transmission performance and reliability
- Advance and implement climate-ready management of fisheries and aquaculture and increased fishing and coastal community resilience, including by:
- Within 6 months-2 years, establishing goals, targets, and guidance for Regional Fishery Management Councils to consider climate resilience of fish stocks in management measures
- Within 6 months, identifying and supporting ways to operationalize climate-ready approaches in fisheries management, expanding new research to better understand best practices and benefits of ocean and coastal habitat protection and restoration for fisheries and fishing communities, and initiating significant increase in ocean and coastal habitat protection and restoration
- Within 1 year, initiating process to adjust governance of fish stocks that expand across multiple fishery management council boundaries, and convening a workshop on alternative approaches to managing fisheries in a climate-changed world
- Decarbonize the maritime shipping sector, with actions including:
- Within 6-12 months, initiate effort to identify existing trade routes that could support green shipping corridors, and develop and implement a U.S. Maritime Decarbonization Strategy
- Within 6 months-2 years, implement ban on heavy fuel use by commercial ships in the Arctic, consider opportunities to reduce or eliminate black carbon emissions impacting the Arctic, and consider and develop national data collection system to collect fuel consumption and emission reporting for commercial vessels using U.S. ports
- Within 5-10 years, require non-military ships constructed using federal funds to be operated by low and zero-lifecycle emission fuels
- Conserve and restore coastal and marine habitats that naturally store carbon, including through development of tools to measure, monitor, account for, and protect blue carbon ecosystems within 6 months-2 years, and within 2-5 years, identify important wetland ecosystems for conservation
- Address ocean acidification, including by creating a U.S. Ocean Acidification Action Plan by Fall 2023
Additionally, the Ocean Policy Committee (OPC) will:
- Within 6 months, develop an Ocean Justice Strategy that identifies barriers and opportunities to fully integrate environmental justice principles into federal ocean activities
- Within 6 months, establish a mechanism for engaging, federal/state/tribal/territorial agencies, the private sector, academia, NGOs, and the public to support participation in OPC initiatives, in partnership with entities including the National Oceanographic Partnership Program, Ocean Research Advisory Panel, and National Ocean Mapping, Exploration, and Characterization Council
- Within 6 months, through its Ocean Science & Technology Subcommittee, develop recommendations for federal OCAP-related research priorities to help guide federal, academic, and private sector research and engagement
Guidance on Ecological Connectivity and Wildlife Corridors
Items of interest included in the CEQ guidance include the following:
- Federal agencies are directed to identify and prioritize actions in support of Guidance objectives, and by Q1 2024 have new or updated policies in place that consider how to conserve, enhance, protect, and restore wildlife corridors and connectivity during planning and decision-making and encourage collaborative processes across management and ownership boundaries; agency progress reports are due within 6 months
- Identified best practices include elevating conservation, enhancement, protection, and restoration of ecological connectivity and wildlife corridors as a programmatic goal, planning at the seascape scale vs. individual project level, and applying ecosystem-based conservation, enhancement, protection, and restoration strategies
- Guidance notes that where adverse impacts cannot be avoided or minimized, offsets or compensatory mitigation should be applied
- Guidance notes that relevant science and data may include:
- Use of ocean waters by wildlife and humans
- Locations of transportation and other infrastructure
- Transportation and energy usage including shipping channels and barge traffic
- Ecosystem service access including fishing usage
- Impacts of industrial activity near migratory routes and beneficial effects of seasonal cessation of activity times with wildlife movement patters
America the Beautiful 2022 Annual Report
In reviewing actions taken last year in support of the 30×30 initiative, the report notes actions including the following:
- Launch of the National Nature Assessment
- Launch of initiative to develop environmental-economic statistics and related indicators
- Initiation of designation process for proposed Hudson Canyon National Marine Sanctuary and pre-designation of Hudson Canyon Sanctuary Advisory Council
- Continued NOAA efforts on proposed Chumash Heritage National Marine Sanctuary
- Establishment of Marine and Coastal Area-based Management Advisory Committee
- Public comment period on development of the American Conservation and Stewardship Atlas
- NOAA development of Fisheries Equity and Environmental Justice Strategy currently being revised and finalized
- Re-establishment of Northern Bering Sea Climate Resilience Area
- Designation of the Connecticut National Estuarine Research Reserve
- Inflation Reduction Act provision of $2.6 billion to NOAA for increasing resilience to climate change, including through targeted research, conservation, restoration, and protection measures for coastal and marine habitats, fisheries, and marine mammals
- $135 million in National Coastal Resilience Fund disbursements and $252 million+ of Interior Dept. disbursements to Gulf Coast states for coastal restoration and conservation
- Launch of the America the Beautiful grant challenge, which resulted in $91 million for 55 conservation projects
