By Suzanne Potter, Producer
California took a big step Tuesday toward the goal of conserving 30% of land and waters by 2030. The Ocean Protection Council adopted a roadmap to decide which protected waters will count toward the goal.
“We’re now at 21.9% of coastal waters conserved,” said Michael Esgro, the council’s senior biodiversity program manager and tribal liaison, “so more than three-quarters of the way to our 30 by 30 goal, here at the halfway point of the initiative. We have another almost 300,000 acres to conserve by 2030.”
The Council refined the roadmap over the past year in a series of public workshops and consultations with tribes. The next meeting in September will delve further into the specific criteria for evaluating improvements in biodiversity in protected waters.
Rebecca Schwartz Lesberg, president of a conservation consulting firm, Coastal Policy Solutions, said advocates are pleased that the final draft of the roadmap zeroes in on threats specific to estuaries, where the rivers meet the sea.
“On the open coast, we’re worried more about things like fishing and oil and gas extraction and impacts from shipping,” she said. “In bays and estuaries, we’re more concerned with impairments to water quality from urban runoff and lack of space for marsh migration under sea-level rise.”
At Tuesday’s hearing, tribal leaders praised the state and tribal cooperation that resulted in the new federal Chumash Heritage National Marine Sanctuary. However, Violet Sage Walker, chair of the Northern Chumash Tribal Council, said the sanctuary needs more state support if it is to be counted in the 30 x 30 initiative, citing cuts at the federal level.
“I am concerned as national leadership has removed so much of the funding,” she said, “so much of the staff and potentially co-management directives from marine sanctuaries and all protected areas.”
The roadmap allows for some commercial fishing within the marine sanctuary. Council staff will report back on biodiversity in those waters over the next year.
Support for this reporting was provided by The Pew Charitable Trusts.
