A reality on Biden’s ‘30 by 30’ conservation plan

The plan has lofty ambitions, but what’s happening on the ground tells a different story of how it might play out.

U.S. President Joe Biden signed a raft of executive orders to launch his administration, many aimed at reversing decisions by his predecessor, including a decision to rejoin the Paris climate accord; reversing the process of leaving the World Health Organization; ending the ban on entries from mostly Muslim-majority countries; bolstering environmental protections; and strengthening the fight against COVID-19. Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images

A week after Joe Biden became president, he signed an executive order that announced his commitment to protecting 30% of U.S. land and water — over 720 million acres — by 2030. The move brought cheers from conservationists and stakeholders who badly needed a break from the Trump era’s incessant environmental deregulation. Then, on May 6, the Department of Interior published Conserving and Restoring America the Beautiful, a preliminary report about what’s become known as the “30 by 30 plan” — and some of that initial excitement waned.

Though the politically savvy report still offers hope for an equitable and sustainable future, Western and Indigenous climate activists and conservationists fear that it promises too much and could hamper conservation by trying too hard to please all the various land users.

In order to tackle three challenges — the disappearance of nature, climate change and inequitable access to the outdoors — the report laid out a locally led, science-based and collaborative road map toward achieving “30 by 30.” As part of it, the Biden administration invited farmers, ranchers and fishermen to get involved, promising to maintain ranching in the West “as an important and proud way of life.” The report also acknowledged the conservation movement’s discriminatory past, including its appropriation of Native American ancestral land and neglect of communities of color, and it vowed to work toward a more inclusive future.

Some worry that the voluntary conservation programs on working lands are temporary and “only kick the can of problems down the road,” said Ashley McCray Engle (Absentee Shawnee Tribe, Oglala Lakota), a policy coordinator at Indigenous Environmental Network, a grassroots nonprofit that advocates environmental justice for Native American communities. Under the Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program of U.S. Department of Agriculture, for example, land is exempted from agricultural use for 10 to 15 years. The conservation work on the land, however, can halt after that.

Read more about Biden’s plan here: https://www.hcn.org/articles/south-politics-a-reality-check-on-bidens-30-by-30-conservation-plan