The Biden administration has outlined a bold vision for conservation, but the devil is in the details, especially when it comes to protecting 30% of lands and waters by 2030.
“It cannot be overstated how critical it is to protect more of this country’s natural places,” said CLF President Bradley Campbell. “Permanently protecting 30 percent of lands and waters will help fight the climate crisis, protect biodiversity, and give future generations a chance at inheriting a healthy planet. The administration’s report presents a reasonable path for reaching this goal in nine short years, but for the effort to be credible the administration needs to be clearer about what criteria must be met to consider lands or waters ‘preserved.’”
“The Supreme Court correctly rejected this baseless challenge to the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument,” said Peter Shelley, Senior Counsel at CLF. “The science supporting the need for this critical protected area—the only one along the Atlantic seaboard—has only gotten stronger and more compelling. The Biden Administration must now reinstate the ban on commercial fishing within the monument’s boundaries as soon as possible.”
“It’s concerning any time you get a statement like this from a justice, especially from the chief justice,” said Peter Shelley, senior counsel at the Conservation Law Foundation in Boston. “The tea leaves of this statement are going to be read closely by people with very different perspectives.”
Early announcements from the new administration give reason for optimism and could help us leave a healthy ocean for future generations. The emphasis on conserving protected ocean areas like the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts means the ocean has a shot at recovering from the damage humans have inflicted.
Protected areas like the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts are critical in the fight to give these waters and species a chance to recover. We know that setting aside parts of the ocean leads to healthy marine life, which fuels an abundance and diversity of life in adjacent waters. That, in turn, supports our ocean economy, including commercial and recreational fishing and whale watching in the long run. Everyone wins.
Biden’s flurry of executive orders addressing climate change, conservation, and environmental justice has us optimistic. Now we must ensure his administration follows through and turns these orders into meaningful and actionable policy.
“Last summer, we watched in shock as President Trump effectively nullified the monument status of the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts by opening it to commercial fishing,” said Bradley Campbell, president of the Conservation Law Foundation. “Defending this monument is critical for protecting valuable species, confronting the climate crisis, and leaving a healthy ocean for future generations.”
As we celebrate the four-year anniversary of New England’s national monuments, CLF is part of a growing movement of scientists, policymakers, businesses, and conservation organizations in the United States and around the world calling for the global protection of at least 30% of land and 30% of the ocean by 2030.
We know that to protect biodiversity and build our ocean’s resilience to climate change, we must protect much more of New England’s ocean.
