Strategy Driven by Science
TNC has the scientific expertise and policy strategy to solve big problems and achieve big results for California.
The Nature Conservancy (TNC) is a science-led, global nonprofit working towards one future with a livable climate, healthy communities and thriving nature. With seven decades of on-the-ground experience, we pair rigorous science with policy expertise to achieve systemic change.
California voters have shown time and again that they are invested in protecting nature.
TNC-led Policy
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The Nature Conservancy supports market-based mechanisms as a tool to combat climate change and meet the needs of both people and nature. As the impacts of climate change worsen, our need to drive down greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions is greater than ever before. TNC played a key role in the establishment of California’s Cap-and-Trade Program, which is a key strategy to cost-effectively drive industry to reduce their GHG emissions overtime. By using economic incentives, the program complements other measures the state uses to reach our climate goals. Almost 20 years after the original bill was passed, TNC is now engaging in legislative negotiations to reauthorize and extend the state’s Cap-and-Trade program so California can continue it’s legacy of environmental leadership.
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In November of 2024, California voters passed the nation’s largest ever bond dedicated to climate. TNC was proud to have sponsored this effort in the legislature, leading and collaborating with a diverse set of stakeholders to achieve critical climate investment. Prop 4 specifically helps prevent devastating wildfires, provides clean, safe drinking water, protects the air we breathe, and protects our iconic lands. These urgent investments in proven solutions protect our communities, health, and economy. TNC is now focused on implementing Prop 4, working closely with legislators and key decisionmakers to ensure investments achieve maximum results for all Californians.
Now, we’re looking forward to working with legislators to maximize the positive pacts of Prop 4 and other policies that Californians are counting on and to help our state maintain its global leadership role in confronting the climate and biodiversity crises. Learn more about TNC’s policy priorities for 2025 and the transformative benefits they can bring to our state.
Our 2025 Policy Priorities
Implement Proposition 4
With nearly 60% support from California voters, Proposition 4 provides historic funding to address climate change and protect California’s natural resources. The bond includes funding for nature-based climate solutions, biodiversity protection, ocean restoration, habitat restoration, water resilience, wildfire prevention and forest health. Implementation of Prop 4 must ensure the greatest benefits are provided to the state. The legislature should consider additional policy to implement Prop 4 to reduce barriers to getting projects done and further the achievement of the state’s important climate and biodiversity goals.
TNC’s Proposition 4 Priorities:
- Honor voters’ intent for Proposition 4 funding to be additive and not be used to backfill existing climate commitments.
Quote: Liz Forsburg Pardi
Californians are taking charge and doubling down on climate action to protect themselves and build a more resilient future while preserving what makes our state special. We are inspired and grateful to see voters back the largest climate and natural resources bond in state history with Prop 4.
The Positive Impacts of Prop 4
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Drinking Water Protections: $3.8 billion to remove toxic pollutants from our drinking water supplies and help ensure all Californians have safe drinking water in their homes. Proposition 4 also invests in water recycling and conservation to cost-effectively increase our water supplies and improves dam and levee safety to prevent floods.
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- Wildfire Prevention Measures: $1.5 billion to prevent wildfires, reduce their damage when they do occur, and improve disaster response.
- Extreme Heat Mitigation Programs: $450 million to develop and implement strategies to protect Californians from extreme heat.
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- Coastal Protection from Rising Sea Levels: $1.2 billion to safeguard coastal communities and resources from the impacts of sea-level rise.
- Funding for ocean recovery including acre-based targets for restoring ocean ecosystems such as kelp forests, eelgrass meadows and native oyster beds, as well as funding for climate-ready fisheries and protecting CA’s Channel Islands.
- Investments in improving ocean and beach conditions to reduce pollution and increase water quality for marine life.
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- Wildlife Protection and Nature-Based Climate Solutions: $1.2 billion to preserve wildlife habitats, implement nature-based solutions to climate change, and prevent extinctions.
- Climate-Smart Farms, Ranches, and Working Lands: $300 million to support sustainable agricultural practices.
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$700 million to enhance green spaces and ensure public access to natural areas.
Reauthorize California’s Cap-and-Trade Program
As daily headlines of heat waves, droughts, megafires, extinctions and extreme flooding remind us, the climate crisis has come to our state. We must help California’s communities and ecosystems adapt to the effects. In 2006, California made history by passing AB 32 and authorizing the Air Resources Board to create the Cap-and-Trade Program, which has limited emissions and generated roughly $28 billion in needed climate investments.
In April 2024, the Administration released its Nature-Based Solutions Climate Targets as required by AB 1757 (Garcia, 2022). These touted the effectiveness of nature-based climate solutions in not only storing carbon, but protecting communities. Building on more than two decades of work, TNC is partnering with economists and legal experts to explore options to make the Cap-and-Trade Program most effective.
TNC’s Cap-and-Trade Priorities:
Reauthorize the Cap-and-Trade Program and make important adjustments to elevate nature-based climate solutions as a mechanism to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions and climate impacts to people and wildlife.
Invest at least 25% of future Cap-and-Trade auction revenues in nature-based climate solutions, creating a back-up reserve of nature-based climate solutions to the price ceiling.
Focus any allowable offsets on activities that store more carbon.
Stewardship of California’s Conserved Lands
The Pathways to 30x30 report found that designating an area as conserved is only the beginning of effective conservation. Protected areas require ongoing stewardship and management.
Stewardship is essential to restoring and maintaining ecosystem health and realizing the full biodiversity benefits of conserved land. As California gets closer to meeting its unprecedented 30x30 goal, it is time to take the next step on stewardship. TNC is developing a policy campaign to elevate stewardship on conserved lands throughout the state.
TNC’s Stewardship Priorities:
- Support the Natural Resources Agency in developing strategies to reduce barriers to and increase support for science-based, adaptive management and stewardship of conserved lands.
- Pilot enhanced stewardship at strategic parks and preserves.
- Through legislation, update the Pathways report with a focus on stewardship, highlighting the impact of successful stewardship on conserved lands.
Provide Habitat for Migratory Birds Through BirdReturns
BirdReturns is a flexible, cost-effective wildlife habitat marketplace designed to give migratory birds wetland habitat when and where they need it. Since 2014, BirdReturns has worked with over 200 farmers to create over 180,000 acres of temporary wetland habitat and has generated over $6 million in direct payments to farmers. The program is especially important during drought, when BirdReturns and similar incentive programs deliver the majority of available habitat for birds across the Valley.
TNC’s BirdReturns Priorities:
- Direct funding from Prop 4 to the Department of Fish and Wildlife to continue supporting this innovative program and other similar incentive programs.
Quote: Scott Morrison
Nature provides the life support systems we all rely on, from the air we breathe to the water we drink. With nature as our partner, we can solve the planet’s most pressing problems.
Implement California’s Salmon Strategy
As a founding member of the California Salmon and Steelhead Coalition, TNC is a strong supporter of the “California Salmon Strategy for a Hotter, Drier Future.” The Salmon Strategy contains smart, feasible steps to facilitate the recovery of California’s native salmon populations. The actions outlined in the Strategy will both increase drought resiliency for rural communities and save native salmon and steelhead trout populations from the very real threat of extinction posed by climate change.
TNC’s Salmon Priorities:
- Use Prop 4 and the Cannabis Tax Fund dollars to implement the Salmon Strategy to restore stream flow in coastal watersheds.
- Reform permitting structures to allow communities to build infrastructure to store water in the wet season.
- Establish scientifically defensible instream flow criteria to guide water management in times of water shortage.
Our Conservation Strategy: Nature Is Our Solution
Climate change is here. It's up to us to adapt and fight the worst effects. Learn more about how TNC works to protect the ecosystems, species and natural resources that California relies on and that make our state unlike anywhere else. From stopping megafires to restoring our coasts, we access the power of nature to protect the thing that matters most: our home.
Our Plan for California
Learn more about our programs and the key strategies we’re using to protect our future.
Land
When native plants and wildlife don’t have the resources they need to survive, our whole state suffers. Here’s how how we create a network of wildlands across California:
1. Protect and connect wildlands.
2. Rewild landscapes.
3. Establish living laboratories.
Water
Millions of families depend on California’s rivers for drinking water. Here’s how we revive freshwater flows:
1. Secure water for wetlands.
2. Make rivers flow again.
3. Rebalance water use.
Oceans
Oceans produce half our air and provide food for over three billion people. Here’s how we restore abundance in our oceans:
1. Recover ocean health.
2. Change the way we fish.
3. Fight ocean plastic.
Climate
Nature can help us achieve one-third of the global greenhouse gas reductions needed to make our planet safer. Here’s how we protect nature to combat climate change:
1. Reimagine land use.
2. Make communities resilient for people and wildlife.
3. Make energy clean and green.
Make a Difference
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Paid for by The Nature Conservancy in California.
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