Though there is almost certainly no chance that it will gain enough votes to make it to the second round of voting on change.org, there is an idea over there that I think merits wider discussion.
Nationally Coordinated Conservation and Restoration
Among the many challenges facing us today, one of the biggest is that of ecosystem destruction and fragmentation. This has resulted in loss of biodiversity and made species and whole ecosystems much more vulnerable to dangers like climate change and invasives.
To deal with this ecological crisis, we must engage in two basic activities:
- Conservation as we usually think about it, protecting existing threatened species or places
- Restoration of damaged ecosystems, creating more habitat and reconnecting fragmented landscapes
A big problem we face in attempting to combat habitat fragmentation is that the issue crosses political boundaries. Nature doesn't respect borders, but decisions are made within and for those various politically defined borders. Because of this, efforts are often restricted in scope to some particular level of organization - a county forest preserve, a national park, etc. And while these conservation/restoration projects are valuable, they cannot really solve the problem. We are left with a scatter-shot of projects and policies, when what we need is something much more unified.
As such, we should work to develop a national system for coordinating between the various stakeholders and governmental levels and organizations to make sure that we are doing the most effective ecological restoration and conservation work we can. This will involve:
-Creating a framework for bringing organizations and stakeholders together
-Collecting and sharing information
-Methods for determining the most valuable or necessary projects
-Resource sharing
Because of the structure of our political and social system, this framework for coordination would have to be a national organization acting in partnership with other entities. In effect, this coordinating body would be an umbrella organization, looking out for the good of the entire nation's environment by coordinating and efficiently allocating the resources, skills, and ideas of other organizations around the country.
Basically I'm looking not only for votes (as I said, unlikely to get enough anyway), but thoughts and input on the idea itself. So, Kossacks, what say you?