Research Reports

On March 27, 2024, ELI hosted a virtual event on Strengthening Fisheries Management Through the Use of Data and Data Tools: Experiences in the Caribbean Region. This event focused on the role new technology can play in strengthening fisheries management.

Compensatory Mitigation: Improving Success Under Changing Circumstances: Funded by an EPA Wetland Programs Development Grant, ELI has produced a report examining whether and how compensatory mitigation providers have considered climate and changing conditions in their projects. This report is a resource for the compensatory mitigation industry—including In-Lieu Fee Program sponsors, mitigation bankers, EPA, and the Army Corps—as it continues to confront the challenges of developing self-sustaining mitigation projects in the face of climate change. 

Involving natural resource experts in the hazard mitigation planning and project implementation process can help fill information gaps and aid in the identification and prioritization of viable nature-based mitigation actions to address identified risks. State agencies and conservation organizations have invested significantly in developing wetland assessment and prioritization tools that could be leveraged to aid in hazard mitigation planning.

Advances in remote sensing technologies, including GPS, lightweight cameras, drones, and LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging), have revolutionized environmental monitoring and management possibilities. Yet there remains a lot to learn about how to effectively use them. ELI received a Wetland Program Development Grant from EPA to identify, develop, and disseminate practical approaches to integrate remote sensing techniques and other emerging technologies into state and tribal wetland program policy frameworks.

This report surveys recent and past decisions of the United States Supreme Court, examines their impact on the fields of environmental law and regulatory law, and evaluates how they might affect various conservation strategies. Given the present period of rapid, highly impactful change in the Court’s jurisprudence, it outlines the 50-year arc of federal environmental protection, documenting the shift from a widely held societal consensus on strong national authority to the more constrained, piecemeal approach unveiled in recent decisions.