Saying more needs to be done to preserve nature as a way to help address climate change, Gov. Gavin Newsom on Wednesday committed the state to a goal of protecting 30% of California’s land and coastal waters by 2030.
Newsom signed an executive order directing the state’s Natural Resources Agency to draw up a plan by Feb. 1, 2022, to achieve the goal in a way that also protects the state’s economy and agriculture industry, while expanding and restoring biodiversity — the vast variety of animals and plants — that live in areas as varied as the Bay Area’s tidepools to arid deserts in Southern California to mountain forests across the Sierra Nevada.
“In our existential fight against climate change, we must build on our historic efforts in energy and emissions and focus on our lands as well,” Newsom said. “California’s beautiful natural and working lands are an important tool to help slow and avert catastrophic climate change.”
California becomes the first state to commit to the “30 x 30” goal — a growing effort by dozens of environmental groups, scientific organizations and the National Geographic Society to preserve at least 30% of the world’s land and oceans in their natural state by 2030.
The issue is expected to play a key role at a major United Nations conference in China next May. Right now, about 15% of the Earth’s land and 7% of its oceans are protected in parks, preserves and other areas.
How much of Newsom’s announcement was symbolism was not entirely clear Wednesday. In California, 47% of the state is already owned by the federal government, mostly in national forests, national parks and desert lands owned by the federal Bureau of Land Management.
The vast majority of that land is undeveloped. So in some ways the goal of 30% protection is already achieved.
However, if state agencies eventually define “protected” as not allowing commercial uses, like mining, or logging or cattle grazing on public lands, the percentage is lower — 22% of the land area and 16% of the state’s territorial waters out to three miles offshore, according to a detailed mapping study by Defenders of Wildlife that was published in May. But the state has no control over federal lands.
Newsom said he hopes to work with private landowners and interest groups, not just on public land.
“It’s about conservation. It’s not about a scarcity mindset,” he said. “It’s not about taking something away. It’s about an inclusive, abundant mindset. It’s about incorporating our hunters, and our fishermen and women. It’s about incorporating those that want to recreate and those that want to do the good work that we need to do in terms of actively managing our forests, and biomass and all the other working and natural lands.”
The announcement Wednesday followed Newsom’s executive order last month to direct the California Air Resources Board to draft rules that will phase out the sale of gasoline-powered cars by 2035, and it comes amid a record year for wildfires, with this August as the hottest August in California’s recorded history.
Republicans criticized Newsom’s latest plan.
“Gov. Gavin Newsom goes around the state legislature again,” the California Republican State Senate Caucus said in a tweet. “Governor’s message: We Don’t Need A Legislature Anymore. This is an overreach. Newsom isn’t even hiding behind COVID-19 emergency powers any more.”
The executive order also includes goals to promote healthy soils, restore declining populations of bees and other pollinating insects, and expand natural storage of carbon. Those projects would likely include thinning overgrown forests to preserve large trees that store the most carbon, to protect them from wildfires, along with restoring wetlands and other habitats.
Environmentalists cheered Newsom’s announcement.
“People and wildlife in California are already suffering from wildfire, drought, and disease because we have not done enough to protect nature, address climate change, and build healthy and resilient communities” said Mike Lynes, director of public policy for Audubon California.
The governor said a key part of the effort will be helping California’s 70,000 farmers and ranchers adapt to the warming climate and also to work with them on projects that store carbon, such as certain types of composting, tilling and other soil and vegetation management.
“We’re not pitting one group against the other,” he said. “We are bringing people to the table.”
The president of the California Farm Bureau Federation said he was “cautiously optimistic” about the executive order.
“We must remember the need to produce affordable food for people and maintain a regulatory environment that allows new businesses to start and existing businesses to grow,” said Jamie Johansson, an olive and citrus farmer in Oroville.
“Even though we are a bit skeptical about the increased use of the executive order as a lawmaking tool,” he added, “we look forward to early and robust discussions about the real work needed to protect California’s working lands.”
