Topic: Conservation Benefits

Forests, wetlands, and agroecosystems are a critical component of natural climate solutions, yet a changing climate puts these ecosystems and the carbon they store at risk from a wide variety of stressors. Luckily, there is much land conservation practitioners can do to help these systems adapt to a changing climate. In this session, we will highlight the potential for synergies and win-wins between efforts to reduce climate change (mitigation) and prepare for and respond to climate change (adaptation) in the land conservation sector.

Land conservation provides many lasting benefits that help us mitigate and adapt to climate change, including forest and soil carbon sequestration, flood mitigation, watershed protection, and biodiversity conservation. Yet while climate change is on the minds of most Americans, land conservation is rarely at the fore. This panel will highlight two exciting examples of how conservation organizations are taking a lead on mitigating and adapting to climate change. Speaker: Charlie Hancock, Cold Hollow to Canada.