Executive Summary

Point Blue Conservation Science is excited to share a new climate-smart guide for land trusts: Integrating Climate Adaptation into Land Conservation: A Climate-Smart Framework for Land Trusts. The purpose of this handbook is to provide land trusts and other land conservation practitioners with a guide to integrating climate change projections and climate adaptation approaches into the process of private land conservation.

A guide for climate-smart private land conservation is sorely needed. Land trusts across California and the U.S. are already experiencing and dealing with the effects of climate change, including wildfires, catastrophic flooding, severe drought, and extreme heat waves. Land trusts are on the front lines of responding to climate impacts on their conserved lands and are well-positioned to increase their climate-smart conservation work.

The handbook covers the following:

• How to gather and analyze information about climate change for your region of focus
• How to integrate climate change into priority setting and strategic conservation
• How to design climate-smart conservation easements and project selection criteria
• How to integrate climate change into stewardship plans and projects

The information in the handbook can help increase the resilience of conserved lands in the context of climate change and ensure land trusts fulfill their commitment to protect land in perpetuity.

Funding

We thank the Resources Legacy Fund and the Richard and Marcia Grand Foundation for funding to support our climate-smart conservation work.