WWF&C and Food Solutions New England (FSNE) have formed a joint regional policy program for New England to address climate change, biodiversity loss, and their mounting threats to human wellbeing and a healthy planet. Together, we are seeking a Policy Program Co-Director to advance our regional policy program centered on an integrated approach to conserving forests, farmland, and water while democratically transitioning forestry, farming, food, and fishery systems toward greater sustainability and resilience.
A 2022 report from Highstead in Redding, CT, explores how New England’s forests are important climate solutions and explores five pathways to increase forests’ impact. New England’s forests are an underrated asset in the fight against climate change, already sequestering the equivalent of 14 percent of carbon emissions across the six states and capable of much more. Through five complementary strategies, forests could sequester 21 percent of carbon emissions while also enhancing critical co-benefits such as cleaner air and water, greater recreational opportunities, and jobs.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities program has awarded $30 million to the New England Forestry Foundation (NEFF) and its partners to help forest landowners implement climate-smart forest practices that also protect ecosystem health and biodiversity.
Created by the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, this portal website compiles land conservation information sources and tools developed by a variety of organizations that are available to guide the decision making of Massachusetts practitioners.
New research from Harvard Forest and published in "Environmental Research Letters" shows striking disparities in the distribution of conserved land across multiple dimensions of social marginalization in New England - and creates a tool to help address them. But Harvard Forest authors Lucy Lee and Jonathan Thompson - with colleagues Neenah Estrella-Luna of Boston, and Kate Sims and Margot Lurie ('21) of Amherst College - didn't stop at identifying the problems. They also created tools that will be part of the solution.
The Northeast Forest Network (NFN), originally known as the New England Forest Policy Group, is a growing coalition of more than two dozen conservationists and advocates across New England and New York dedicated to furthering forest conservation.