Leveraging Ecosystem Benefit Flows for More Effective and Inclusive Management
Aerial stream
Mara Pusic
Linda Breggin
Thursday, January 2, 2025

Ecosystem services research has traditionally emphasized the essential role of healthy ecosystems in supporting human well-being by showcasing the critical benefits they provide, such as clean air and fertile soil. While this research has been important to communicating these benefits and even creating market-based solutions to sustain them, it often neglects a key element: the social dimensions of equity, justice, and resource distribution.

Evaluating Projects and Programs in Fragile, Conflict-Affected, and Violent Contexts
Gardening
Ella Stack
Amanda Woomer
Carl Bruch
Shaadee Ahmadnia
Friday, April 12, 2024

With violent conflict on the rise around the world, the contexts in which international institutions—including the World Bank, United Nations Development Program (UNDP), Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), and the Global Environmental Facility (GEF)—support environmental and development interventions are increasingly characterized by fragility, conflict, and violence (FCV).

Conservation Actions for Climate Resilience: Bureau of Land Management Accepting Comments on Proposed Rule
Escalante National Monument
Wednesday, May 17, 2023

On April 3, 2023, the Department of Interior’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM) proposed regulations that would update how the agency approaches public land management “by prioritizing the health and resilience of ecosystems across those lands.” The updates are important, and have the potential for significant impact, because BLM manages nearly 10% of the United States, or almost 250 million acres.

Now As Then, Rivers Are Crucial to Our Prosperity
Nile River in Cairo Egypt
Stephen R. Dujack
Monday, February 6, 2023

One of the first civilizations to arise after humankind left Africa was in a nearby region that is in present-day Iraq and parts of neighboring countries stretching to the Mediterranean Sea. It has been dubbed by chroniclers Mesopotamia, Greek for “the land between two rivers.” The Tigris and Euphrates valley was the setting for the biblical Garden of Eden and is aptly named the Fertile Crescent in history books today.

Connecting the Dots: Interview with Wetland Community Leader and Westport Conservation Director, Alicia Mozian
Alicia Mozian with NWA award
Sarah Backer
Wednesday, December 7, 2022

Alicia Mozian, recipient of the 2017 National Wetlands Community Leader Award, retired in October after 35 years of dedication to environmental sustainability in Connecticut. Mozian served over two decades as the Conservation Department Director of Westport, overseeing most aspects of Westport’s environment.

Critical Minerals and Fast-Tracking the Clean Energy Transition
Electric vehicle
Akielly Hu
Wednesday, November 16, 2022

Clean energy technologies require a variety of minerals of varying degrees of scarcity. As a result, decarbonizing the economy will entail expansion of mineral production—not only through imaginative reuse and recycling, but also through new mines and the permits required to build those mines. Some have called for a loosening of environmental standards to address this growing need.

Irreconcilable Differences or Comfortably Compatible?: Adaptive Management and Environmental Assessments
Coastline
Jarryd Page
Wednesday, August 10, 2022

Natural resource management can be complicated and filled with uncertainty, especially over longer time scales and across large, varied landscapes. It makes sense—natural systems are highly interconnected and complex, a fact that the ecological sciences have recognized for decades. But natural systems don’t always align with legal systems.

A Watershed Moment in Federal Water Resource Development Policy
Mississippi River near Venice, Louisiana_by Amy Reed
Amy Reed
Jordan Perry
Rebecca Ramirez
Friday, July 15, 2022
In early June, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (the Corps) announced that it is seeking public input on a set of initiatives intended to “modernize the Civil Works Program.” These modernization efforts aim to prioritize various objectives articulated by President Joe Biden’s Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works, Michael Connor, including better serving the needs of disadvantaged communities, improving communications and relationships with stakeholders, and advancing innovative, climate-resilient infrastructure that will protect both communities and ecosystems.
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