Poorly planned land development often destroys natural habitat, causing a decline in critical animal and plant diversity. Land planning fails to incorporate the best current science on species protection because the information is not readily available to the planners. The Environmental Law Institute® reaches these conclusions in a new report, Conservation Thresholds for Land Use Planners. Its report, summarizing the available science, provides a bridge between that community and the planning profession.
“Although the scientific literature may offer some guidelines to land use planners on how best to pattern and distribute development to minimize impacts to biodiversity, it is rarely presented in a manner that is accessible or usable by this important audience,” said ELI Science and Policy Analyst Christina Kennedy, the primary author of the study. “Our report seeks to distill ecological information into a range of values that land use planners can turn to when making decisions about land use.”
For the past two years, ELI has worked with the Consortium on Biodiversity and Land Use (CBLU) to conduct research designed to inform and advance the integration of biodiversity protection and land use planning. With support from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, ELI has begun publishing a series of reports to help land use planners and developers make wise decisions that promote sustainable development and biodiversity protection.
With more than 1,400 papers and abstracts reviewed for the project and a total of 160 papers selected for inclusion, this second report of the series covers conservation thresholds on habitat patch area, percent suitable habitat, edge effects, riparian buffers, and corridors. Conservation Thresholds for Land Use Planners summarizes what is known within the scientific community about potential land use planning and design thresholds.
“Our hope is that this report will provide land use planners with the information they need to turn traditional land use approaches into conservation tools,” said Jessica Wilkinson, director of ELI’s State Biodiversity Program. “It is also designed to provide those in the academic field with guidance on where additional research is needed to improve land use practices.”
The first report of the series, Planning with Nature: Biodiversity Information in Action, was released in January 2003 and illustrates the ample authority at the state level for decisionmakers to require more consultation with Natural Heritage Programs on the impacts of proposed decisions on biological diversity. The next two installments of the series, Planning for Biodiversity: Authorities in State Land Use Laws and Nature-Friendly Ordinances: Local Measures for Biodiversity, are due out by summer 2003.
For more information about this report or ELI’s State Biodiversity Program contact Christina Kennedy at 202-939-3827. For more information on the Environmental Law Institute, please visit our Web site at http://www.eli.org.