Land Trust AllianceLand Trust Alliance

Our commitment to 30x30

Together, we’ve done much. Now we must do more.

Photo of mountains in Alaksa

What is 30x30?

President Biden’s executive order committing to the conservation of 30 percent of U.S. lands and oceans by 2030 is an ambitious call to action for the land conservation community. Our community has an important role to play, so we must rise to the challenge. The executive order recognizes the importance of private conservation efforts in achieving 30x30 and commits the federal government to work in collaboration with non-governmental stakeholders and landowners.

Learn more about the executive order.

Learn more about our commitment.

Andrew Bowman

President & CEO

“President Biden’s executive order calling for conservation of at least 30 percent of the U.S. land base by 2030 is one the Land Trust Alliance applauds. This is an audacious and timely conservation challenge that requires the conservation of millions of acres of land in private ownership. The nation’s land trusts are ready and willing to help private landowners conserve their lands at this ambitious scale. With a new sense of urgency, the land trust community will do its part together with farmers, ranchers, foresters, fishermen, tribes, states and local officials across the country to help make the 30x30 goal a reality.”

Read more from Andrew Bowman in this transcript of his remarks from Rally 2019, the Alliance’s annual National Land Conservation Conference.

Achieving 30x30: The Essential Role for Our Community

The ambitious 30x30 goal, embraced by the president and scientific community, offers our nation’s best — and perhaps only — hope to secure critical public benefits provided by natural and working lands. Yet, there is neither the political will nor funding for the federal purchase of the 400 million acres required to reach the goal. In contrast, voluntary private land conservation enjoys broad, bipartisan support and is an essential strategy for realizing the goal.

Land trusts are our country’s primary drivers of private land conservation. Based in communities across the country, they are uniquely qualified to respond to local needs, conserving lands that provide clean air and water, natural climate solutions, sustainable food and fiber, biodiversity preservation, as well as equitable access to open spaces for respite, recreation and sustenance.

Currently, the nation’s land trusts are conserving approximately 1 million acres a year. With additional advocacy, marketing, community engagement and capacity-building offerings from the Land Trust Alliance, we are confident our land trust members can conserve at least 10 million acres a year by the end of this decade and do so in an equitable and inclusive way.

The Land Trust Alliance is committed to catalyzing private land conservation by ensuring land trusts have the necessary vision, tools, capacity and resources. In support of our land trust members and the 30x30 goal, we are prepared to work to secure billions of dollars in federal funding and charitable donations, mobilize a new powerbase for conservation, ensure conserved lands serve all people, and expand our Leadership and Excellence programs to transform the capacity and performance of the land trust community.

Learn more about our commitment.

Spotlight

American Nature Campaign

The Alliance, along with 180 other organizations and businesses, is an official supporter of American Nature Campaign’s Thirty by Thirty Resolution to Save Nature. Check out its website to learn more about the campaign.

Learn more

Standing with our peers

Nonprofits and businesses across the country are supporting this executive order. Find the statements of our peers at the links below:

30x30 FAQ

A nonpartisan, national goal to conserve 30% of lands and waters by 2030

What’s the background? Research shows that conserving – at a global scale – 30% of lands and waters by 2030 is the minimum commitment needed to protect essential ecosystem services and buffer against the worst impacts of climate change. Recognizing this truth, 86% of voters in the U.S. support a national 30x30 goal (survey of 1,203 registered voters conducted by Hart Research Associates, Feb. 20-26, 2019), including 73% of voters in eight western states (survey of 3,200 voters conducted by New Bridge Strategy and FM3 Research, Jan. 11-19, 2020). In support of the 30x30 campaign, the Land Trust Alliance is working to elevate the role of private land conservation.

How much land is already conserved? The most widely accepted figure is 12% or 293 million acres (U.S. Geological Survey Gap Analysis Project). This includes national parks, wilderness areas, permanent conservation easements, state parks and other conserved areas. Approximately 60% of all land in the U.S. remains in a mostly natural condition or could be restored to one, making a national 30x30 target ambitious but achievable.

How do we achieve 30x30? Reaching this goal requires the conservation of many types of habitat through a variety of conservation methods. To be clear, this doesn’t mean locking up these acres and throwing away the key. Rather, it means keeping our farms, ranches and forested working lands in working hands. The Nature Conservancy’s Resilient and Connected Landscapes project has identified and mapped a proposed conservation network of climate-resilient sites that could form the basis of a potential strategy for reaching 30x30. (Learn more here.)

Is this a federal land grab? No. The 30x30 campaign amplifies local approaches to conservation and highlights the important role that America’s farmers, ranchers and forest landowners play in conserving and restoring nature. A recent executive order regarding 30x30 merely recognizes the importance of the 30x30 campaign and commits the federal government to work in collaboration with landowners and other stakeholders to support it.

What’s the solution? Conserving 30% of lands and waters by 2030 is an audacious goal and the land trust community has an important role to play. But for us to do our part, Congress must provide increased support to land trusts and the private landowners with whom they work. This includes protecting the integrity of the federal tax incentive for conservation easement donations; increasing mandatory funding for Farm Bill conservation programs that maintain viable working farms, ranches and forests; and creating mechanisms to compensate landowners when they increase the capacity of their lands to store and absorb carbon. But we will not reach the necessary rate of land conservation exclusively through increased funding or new legislation. It will take determination and commitment — qualities already embodied by land trust personnel, volunteers and supporters. And it will require a new recognition that we all must prioritize land trusts and the work they do as essential for the well-being of neighborhoods, towns, counties and states across the country.

Download a PDF of the FAQ