Workshop Roundtables
CLEANR’s Workshop Roundtables are the center’s core initiative. Bringing together leading policymakers, industry representatives, activists, scientists, and scholars, the roundtables play a critical role in CLEANR’s ongoing efforts to identify and address gaps in existing research, advance knowledge and engagement, build advocacy networks, and promote policy action on important and emerging environmental issues.
Future Policy Design Workshops
CLEANR is organizing several policy design workshops for the 2025-2026 academic year. Policy workshops will focus on, among other topics, (a) "A Legislative Agenda for California Pesticide Reform" (Fall 2025); (b) "Effective and Equitable Climate Action" (Winter 2025); (c) "Governance to Rescue Dying Caribbean Coral Reef Ecosystems" (Winter 2025); (d) "Intentional Discrimination in Environmental Justice Legal Practice" (Spring 2026); (e) "Harnessing U.S. Biotechnology Policy to Promote Effective Conservation" (Fall 2026); "Community Data for Environmental Justice" (Fall 2026); (f) "Next-Generation Environmental Impact Assessment" (under development); and many others. Please feel free to contact CLEANR Director Gregg Macey or Faculty Director Alejandro Camacho for further information on these or other potential workshops.
Effective and Equitable Climate Action
June 30, 2025
CLEANR obtained a $1.2 million grant from the State of California to help the state develop an infrastructure for promoting local and regional climate planning and action. Integrated and Equitable Climate Action (IECA), led by CLEANR Director Gregg Macey and Faculty Director Alejandro Camacho, carries out (1) community-led needs assessment with Co-PIs who are leaders of the environmental justice movement, (2) Climate Action Inventories with evaluative metrics for hundreds of jurisdictions, (3) the development of a California Climate Action Legal Tools document, the most comprehensive account of California state law on climate and environmental justice policy with a focus on implications for local climate action, (4) a publicly available, user-friendly geospatial tool for the public to engage in comparative assessment of environmental disparities, climate hazards, and performance of municipalities on climate action planning, and (5) support for individual jurisdictions in the development or update of their Climate Action Plans. IECA's mission is to ensure that a growing number of California’s municipal governments and counties are at the forefront of global climate policy integration, while also assuring compliance with civil rights laws.
Climate change contributes to unprecedented disruption not only of physical and social systems, but also governance. Municipal governance is a leading frontier in U.S. climate policy, long neglected in light of how local land use authority affects over 70% of our nation’s carbon emissions. Moreover, the importance of CAPs will only grow over the next twenty years as local action becomes a principal strategy to manage climate change. The focus of IECA is on climate action plans (CAPs), the primary documents through which local governments formalize their strategies to reduce carbon emissions, adapt to hazards, and increase community resilience.
So far, the limited academic research on the role of CAPs in furthering good governance and democratic participation is not encouraging.
- In California—perhaps the leading state actor in the U.S. on climate change—CAPs are adopted by less than half of the state’s cities and counties and are more likely to be adopted in wealthy, coastal regions. Several factors (e.g., population size, local government capacity) explain whether a city or county will adopt a CAP. CAPs will soon need to be revised to account for state ambitions through 2030 and beyond.
- Many jurisdictions hire the same consulting firms to draft plans that are relatively inaccessible to the public for their input (e.g., a handful of listening sessions). Established organizations play an outsized role in this outreach, to the detriment of the broader public. There is a significant time lag between CAP adoption, implementation, and evaluation. This places CAPs beyond local electoral cycles and public scrutiny. Importantly, more than three-fourths of CAPs do not include a governance structure for implementation.
- By California law, equity must be considered as part of the CAP process, as local climate actions can lead to the unequal distribution of benefits (e.g., energy and low-carbon transportation access) and burdens (e.g., pricing, green gentrification). Yet the discussion of equity in CAPs usually takes the form of a stated problem or goal, with little relation to actions, metrics, or residents’ expressed concerns.
At the same time, there are hints of how to increase democratic participation and ensure good governance of local climate action planning:
- While factors such as population, per capita income, and city revenue influence CAP adoption, they have much less influence over plan ambition. The level of CAP ambition is influenced by dedicated collaboration among volunteers, the existence of knowledgeable and dedicated public servant professionals within a municipality, and the presence of universities, each of which can overcome challenges such as limited funding.
- Few jurisdictions are aware of the full range of policy options and alternatives available to address specific challenges within a CAP process; this understanding can be produced by community-academic partnerships. CAP adoption leads to policy diffusion within a county’s local jurisdictions.
- Cities that consider climate change across multiple departments achieve higher quality plans, as do cities that tailor their efforts rather than rely on national or proprietary assessment tools. Public involvement increases when policy options focus on co-benefits of climate policy such as community development.
- Because equity presents a context-specific set of planning challenges, authentic participation – where intensive forms of shared decision making (e.g., involve, collaborate) join limited public involvement (e.g., inform, consult) – must be pursued before equity is included within county and local climate action plans.
As part of our ongoing mission, IECA convened a policy design workshop with planners, public officials, community leaders, and members of the California State Legislature at the UC Student and Policy Center in Sacramento. Through facilitated dialogue, we considered findings in a CLEANR report based on interviews with 63 planners and officials. The report, "Climate Action Plan Development and Implementation: Inter- and Intra-organizational Dynamics," will be made public in Fall 2025.
Advancing Affirmative Conservation under the Endangered Species Act
October 31, 2024
Existing assessments of federal affirmative conservation duties under Section 7(a)(1) of the Endangered Species Act (ESA) in the academic literature as well as by governmental authorities are limited. For example, Defenders of Wildlife carried out a survey of existing Section 7(a)(1) programs in 2021. They found that relatively few agencies attempt to meet their affirmative recovery obligations under Section 7(a)(1). Agency plans are highly inconsistent. Courts have held that agencies have a nondiscretionary duty to carry out affirmative recovery programs and that such programs cannot be insignificant. The Endangered Species Consultation Handbook contains comprehensive guidance to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) as well as action agencies on consultations under Section 7(a)(2) and how they should be carried out. It provides less than a page on program reviews under Section 7(a)(1) and restricts them to the Services and their Washington offices. During the Biden Administration, FWS leadership paid greater attention to Section 7(a)(1). At the request of the FWS’s director, attorneys at the Interior Department's Office of the Solicitor prepared a memorandum that outlines FWS's Section 7(a)(1) duties. However, substantial uncertainty remained among federal agencies over how to develop and implement Section 7(a)(1) plans. Informal discussions with agency staff suggested a lack of knowledge of Section 7(a)(1), its obligations, and how to meet them. In response, CLEANR partnered with Defenders of Wildlife to convene a policy workshop with federal agency staff. Officials from the Department of the Interior, Fish and Wildlife Service, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Agriculture, Bureau of Land Management, Department of Defense, Environmental Protection Agency, Department of Justice and other agencies attended the workshop at UC Irvine School of Law in October 2024. CLEANR distributed a policy brief to participants, based in part on interviews with 20 federal conservation officials. CLEANR Director Gregg Macey and Faculty Director Alejandro Camacho also submitted comments on Endangered Species Act Section 10(a) and Section 7(a)(1) program implementation to FSW, based in part on decades of research and policy workshops held by CLEANR and other researchers at UC Irvine and by organizations such as Defenders of Wildlife.
Pollution Magnets: Addressing Gaps in Air Pollution Regulation through Indirect Source Review
March 18, 2025
CLEANR's Air Quality, Goods Movement, and Just Transition program expanded its research partnership to consider the freight and logistics as an environmental justice issue. CLEANR Director Gregg Macey worked Sue Dexter, a logistics expert at the University of Southern California to (1) determine environmental justice state policy pathologies in California; (2) assess the legality of indirect source review (ISR) programs under the Clean Air Act; (3) compare regional ISR programs in Southern California and the San Joaquin Valley; (4) propose elements of a robust ISR program that can be adopted by air districts in other regions; and (5) analyze public health burdens and costs of warehouse expansion. CLEANR hosted a conference in the Bay Area that brought together community leaders, city and agency officials, and researchers to present findings about the suitability and public health benefits of warehouse indirect source review (ISR) in the Bay Area. The workshop was sponsored by a generous grant from the Sierra Club and Earthjustice. A report co-authored by Dr. Macey was published the same day, along with several essays. Following this meeting, their research was used to inform public comments on freight and logistics regulation by the San Diego Air Pollution Control District. Dr. Macey wrote a follow-up article that was distributed to 13,000 members of the Sierra Club in Southern California. He also published an op-ed with Charles Rilli, Conservation Organizing Manager at the Sierra Club, in the San Diego Union Tribune.
People's Tribunal on Pesticide Use and Civil Rights in California
September 12, 2024
Through a partnership with a statewide coalition of over 200 organizations led by Californians for Pesticide Reform (CPR), CLEANR Director Gregg Macey worked for several years to investigate, analyze, and improve pesticide use and occupational practices in California, the world's fourth largest economy. On September 12, 2024, CLEANR and CPR held a People's Tribunal with farmworkers, farmworker families, and community-based organizations from across California’s San Joaquin Valley and Central Coast. The Tribunal centered on community testimony and covered several subjects, including (1) generations of work to address farmworker and school exposure to pesticide use and regulatory gaps in California; (2) scientific research to understand harms that result from residential and farmworker exposure to pesticide use in California; (3) local non-profit coalition testimony from across the San Joaquin Valley, with a focus on community experience, awareness of harms, and pressing concerns; (4) Indigenous perspectives, with a focus on the difficulty accessing enforcement and other services for those who speak transnational Indigenous languages; and (5) state responsibility for pesticide use regulation including civil rights laws and potential civil rights violations in the context of pesticide use in California. Well over 100 individuals, including farm workers and their families, attended the Tribunal in person. The Tribunal was made possible by a generous grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. In February 2024, Dr. Macey and CPR prepared an advisory opinion and shared findings with coalition members at a press conference in Watsonville, California. They wrote letters to the California Attorney General and leaders of state agencies to center findings within broader environmental justice policy trends. Together, they published a peer-reviewed article with community leaders serving as co-authors and an article that describes their collaboration. Community testimony pointed to strong evidence of discrimination by state operations as well as state-funded operations. In 2025, Dr. Macey wrote to encourage the California State Legislature's Joint Legislative Audit Committee to approve an audit of California agricultural pesticide use laws and their enforcement. The audit request was approved.
Beyond Symbolic Policy: Environmental and Racial Justice in California
July 29, 2022
This roundtable includes over 20 participants from more than a dozen state agencies, including senior leadership, attorneys, and heads of departments. It builds on a report which distilled 40 hours of conversation with 21 California agency staff. The report identified 9 themes, gave the history of the evolution of environmental justice policy in California, and included critiques of the California approach that followed. It noted that the bulk of those critiques were lodged before state agencies adopted and revised their EJ policies, and before this became a norm for boards, departments, and offices within and beyond CalEPA. They were also developed before state climate policy had a chance to evolve, before the limits of decarbonization to ensure a stable climate became clear, before the Movement for Black Lives and the COVID-19 pandemic further laid bare racial and other inequities across the state, and before agencies adopted racial equity resolutions and policies that call for far-reaching organizational change. The roundtable agenda covers several ways in which these events upend agency practice. The sessions include facilitated dialogue, modified SWOT analyses, and roundtable discussion. We anticipate several projects with leaders who attended the roundtable that will further the conversation around issues such as screening and cumulative impacts; available legal authorities and racial equity action; moving from meaningful involvement to partnership; organizational memory, change, and learning; and whole-of-government response. Outcomes from the event will include published versions of the report in law reviews and peer-reviewed journals, a summit held in 2022-2023, and tailored research projects with participants.
Promoting Water Efficiency through Water Budget Tiered-Rate Structures in California
November 12, 2021
In partnership with the California Coastkeeper Alliance and former Irvine Ranch Water District Water Conservation Coordinator
This roundtable focuses on promoting water efficiency through water budget rate programs in California. In an effort to build resiliency as the state faces growing stressors due to changing climate and other pressures, water resource experts in California have begun to explore a variety of initiatives focused on long-term water conservation and efficiency planning. This 2020 roundtable explores one particular approach to water efficiency and conservation: water budget-based, tiered-rate structures. These rate structures involve calculating a water budget that represents an efficient volume of water based on individualized customers’ water needs, and are designed to provide a clear and visible incentive to avoid high levels of water use by having the water user pay different prices per unit of water delivered depending on the amount used. This roundtable will facilitate dialogue on the water efficiency and water quality improvements, as well as revenue stability achieved by water districts that have adopted budget-based rate structures, and will address the gaps in knowledge that policymakers have on this issue. This roundtable will bring together California legislators, water districts, NGOs, scholars, and economists in an effort to contribute to policy action aimed at the Legislature’s creation of a State Revolving Fund allocation that would provide technical and legal assistance to municipalities to develop water budget rate structures.
Arctic Governance
June 18, 2021
The changing state of the Arctic Ocean is opening the region to additional interests and stressors, creating new challenges for resource management in the Arctic and elsewhere in the world. This roundtable builds upon three prior convenings focused on Arctic governance: 1) a January 2015 conference that presented an overview of law in the Arctic and explored ideas for new initiatives for the region; 2) an April 2016 roundtable that discussed existing and emerging issues in Arctic marine governance; and 3) an October 2017 roundtable that assessed legal strategies to address the challenges of climate change and its effects on local and indigenous Arctic communities. CLEANR’s spring 2021 roundtable will additionally draw from a survey of Arctic experts conducted by CLEANR's Faculty Advisor that identified and prioritized environmental governance strategies in the region. Based on the results of this survey, the roundtable will focus on: designating Particularly Sensitive Sea Areas in the Arctic to be protected by special actions; identifying additional Marine Protected Areas in the Arctic; and becoming an active United Nations Environment Program regional seas program.
A Conservation Vision for the Federal Endangered Species Act
October 15 & 16, 2020
In partnership with the Environmental Policy Innovation Center (EPIC)
With a Democratic majority in the House after the November 2018 midterm election, this roundtable focused on developing a progressive vision for effective adjustments to the federal Endangered Species Act (ESA) to enhance species conservation. This roundtable brought together scholars, advocates, and policymakers with expertise in species and habitat conservation efforts to facilitate meaningful dialogue around possible edits to the ESA that would build upon the successes the ESA has already achieved in protections for species and their habitat.
Tap Into Resilience: Removing Barriers to Local, Sustainable Water Resource Strategies
September 13, 2019
In partnership with Waternow Alliance
As water systems face ever-increasing stressors due to our changing climate, communities are looking for ways to build resilience and secure local water resources. Localized water resource strategies such as green infrastructure, efficiency programs, and on-site reuse initiatives can be affordable, effective, and environmentally friendly alternatives to centralized systems to help address these challenges. Yet legal and policy barriers, including limited funding options and institutional water management silos, have limited their scope. Building upon WaterNow Alliance’s Tap Into Resilience campaign, this roundtable engages participants in a focused discussion on the legal and policy reforms needed to identify and address the barriers to promoting decentralized and localized water strategies. The roundtable convenes scholars, technical experts, and representatives from cities and water utilities to share lessons learned from those already grappling with these issues and explore opportunities for diversifying water resilience strategies with on-site solutions.
Defense of Science: Safeguarding Against Distortions of Scientific Research in Federal Policymaking
May 22, 2019
In partnership with the Union of Concerned Scientists
This workshop brings together a small number of leading scientists, scholars, advocates, and policymakers to explore potential safeguards to protect scientific research and its use in policymaking from the types of abuses that have been documented under the Trump Administration. While documentation, oversight, litigation, and political responses are necessary and important in the near-term, the discussion should not be limited by the current political climate. A more robust framework of legislative, executive, and institutional safeguards are needed to prevent abuses over the long-term. This roundtable seeks to facilitate meaningful dialogue around the existing vulnerabilities to abuses of science and recommendations for the President, agency heads, and agency scientific integrity officers to strengthen scientific integrity across the government. The discussion focuses on the agencies tasked with protecting environmental and human health, including the Environmental Protection Agency, agencies of the Department of the Interior, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the Food and Drug Administration. The roundtable discussion contributes to a document reflecting recommendations for policy guidance and other legal safeguards to protect the role of science.
Advocating for Improvements in Species Conservation
April 12, 2019
In partnership with the Environmental Policy Innovation Center (EPIC)
With a Democratic majority in the House after the November 2018 midterm election, this roundtable focused on developing a progressive vision for effective adjustments to the federal Endangered Species Act (ESA) to enhance species conservation. This roundtable brought together scholars, advocates, and policymakers with expertise in species and habitat conservation efforts to facilitate meaningful dialogue around possible edits to the ESA that would build upon the successes the ESA has already achieved in protections for species and their habitat.
Mitigating Climate Change through Transportation and Land Use Policy: Opportunities and Challenges
October 19, 2018
Allowing for greater population density has the potential to shorten commute times, make housing more affordable, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, enable greater and more cost-effective investment in mass transit, and increase economic productivity. Nonetheless, local zoning boards and bodies that regulate land use give disproportionate influence to incumbent residents who oppose greater density at the expense of their potential future neighbors, economic growth, and climate change mitigation. This dynamic offers state and local governments the opportunity to reap large economic, environmental, and social gains if they could craft policies that ensure adequate housing and accessible transit in the places where people want to live. Although there exists no legal barrier to state governments exerting greater control over land use policy, it is traditionally an area of local responsibility, and imposition of strong prescriptive policies has proven politically challenging. This roundtable explores the experiences of California, Maryland, Oregon, Washington, and New York in addressing these challenges, and engages participants in a focused discussion on potential approaches and opportunities for improved policy.
Regulating Labor Abuses in the Food Supply Chain
March 9, 2018
This roundtable continued an ongoing discussion of how sustainability might support efforts to eradicate labor abuses in our food system. A core principle driving modern food policy is sustainability—the idea that food should be cultivated in a manner that preserves rather than depletes food sources for future generations. Increasingly, government officials, advocates, and corporate actors have sought to expand the concept of sustainability to account for social costs such as exploitation in the production of food. Yet, the legal tools available for supporting this broadened view of sustainability remain limited. This roundtable focused on a strategy that has garnered some success: pressuring entities up the food chain to enter into legally binding contracts with ethical production provisions. This roundtable will generate concrete recommendations for those interested in utilizing this model of norms enforcement.
Legal Strategies to Address Climate Change in the North American Arctic
October 27–28, 2017
This roundtable brought together a small number of leading attorneys, academics, and experts working on a range of issues concerning the U.S. and Canadian Arctic to assess potential legal strategies, including litigation as well as other advocacy techniques, to address the challenges of climate change in the region. The goals of the roundtable were to foster dialogue, advance knowledge, and develop practical policy solutions. Participants shared experiences and explored alternative strategies and recommendations, including indigenous perspectives, and examined opportunities for effective legal action.
Food Security and Sustainability
March 10, 2017
This roundtable brought together academics, practitioners, activists, and students to examine the relationship between food security and environmental sustainability as alternative legal frames. It considered the extent to which those frames complement and contradict one another, setting a relatively straightforward but ambitious agenda: to identify legal reforms that advance the goals of both food security and environmental sustainability.
Enhancing Coordination and Integrating Water Quality Protection in California's Marine Protected Areas
January 13, 2017
In partnership with UCI OCEANS and working with state and local entities
Against the backdrop of California’s ongoing assessment of its MPA network, this roundtable built on a June 2016 scoping session and convened experts and practitioners to explore the goals of MPAs in dynamic conditions, opportunities to overcome regulatory fragmentation in water quality monitoring, and the lessons of MPA collaboratives in promoting coordination.
Tensions of Transparency: Open Government Laws in Land Use Regulation
December 9, 2016
Open government laws facilitating public access to government meetings and records can promote public participation in the democratic process. Yet, some participants in public-private land development deals contend that existing open government law can constrain productive negotiations without effectively increasing public engagement. This roundtable explored the tensions that arise in the land development process, where the goal of maintaining government transparency can conflict with the goal of effectively negotiating complex deals mingling private resources and public authority.
Native Nations Protecting Coastal Lands and Waters in California
November 19-20, 2016
In partnership Sacred Places Institute for Indigenous Peoples, Wishtoyo Chumash Foundation, UCI American Indian Resource Program, UCI OCEANS, UCI Sustainability, UCI Program in Public Health, The California Endowment, The California Wellness Foundation, and Resources Legacy Fund
This two-day convening aimed to strengthen relationships among, and government-to-government consultation between, Native Nations and the California Coastal Commission, the California Coastal Conservancy, NOAA, and Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, by building the capacity of Native Nations and Indigenous leaders to advance Tribal coastal and marine protection goals. It focused on strategies to achieve community-identified goals relating to Tribal sovereignty and environmental justice and the development of effective, up-to-date state and federal coastal marine preservation and management policies.
Adaptive Management of Marine Protected Areas
June 9, 2016
In partnership with UCI OCEANS
Globally, a number of jurisdictions including California are developing, testing, and refining various approaches to marine management through the use of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs). As California’s newly implemented MPA network approaches regional and statewide reviews, roundtable participants will compare the effectiveness of California’s regime to other jurisdictions, consider the goals of MPAs in light of shifting baselines, and assess the overall effectiveness of California’s overlapping, and often fragmented, regimes of marine governance. Against the backdrop of the South Coast MPA Region’s five-year assessment, legal scholars and scientists from academia, government, industry, and non-profit organizations will consider the implementation and long-term success of MPAs in an increasingly dynamic world.
Proposition 218
May 18, 2016
California’s Constitution mandates that state water resources be put to beneficial use and not be wasted or used unreasonably. Proposition 218 requires government agencies to show that the amount charged for a property- related service such as water delivery does not exceed the proportional cost of the service. As California faces growing water supply challenges, the recent Capistrano Taxpayers Association v City of San Juan Capistrano litigation involving tiered water rates and Proposition 218 struck down penalty rates for excessive water use, thus posing additional potential hurdles for conservation. This half-day workshop roundtable will convene various leading thinkers to address water conservation challenges facing local governments in California, exploring the application of Proposition 218 and its potential effects on California water policy. The participants will explore solutions to address: (1) stormwater funding, (2) conservation pricing, and (3) affordability, including the potential development of model local ordinances and recommendations for state water law and policy reform.
Environmental Governance and Management in the Arctic
April 21–22, 2016
The changing state of the Arctic Ocean is opening up the region to new interests and added stressors, creating new challenges for marine resource management in the Arctic. Building on a January 2015 conference on Arctic governance that was convened in collaboration with the UCI Newkirk Center; representatives from consulates of Norway, Sweden, and Finland; and U.S. government officials, this roundtable will bring together national and international Arctic experts to discuss existing and emerging issues in Arctic marine governance. Topics may include the implementation of the Arctic Council Initiatives, including the recently signed declaration to prevent unregulated fishing in the Central Arctic Ocean, and developing a framework within UNCLOS for promoting ecosystem-based management. Additional topics may include an assessment of future needs for a regional seas program or other mechanism, as appropriate, for increased cooperation in Arctic marine areas. Accompanied by an open public lecture on the Arctic and its environmental governance.
Redeveloping Democracy: Capturing the Public and Private Value(s) of Land Use
December 4, 2015
Government actions, such as land-use planning, zoning, and infrastructure spending can increase the economic value of land. Land value capture regulation attempts to retain some portion of this increased value for public use. This session will bring together researchers and practitioners in land use regulation and public finance to discuss challenges related to public participation and community engagement in the design and implementation of value capture regulation.
Investing for Environmental Justice in Indian Country: Exploring Social Justice Impact Investing in Tribal Projects
October 23, 2015
In partnership with Sacred Places Institute for Indigenous Peoples, Native Americans in Philanthropy, and the UC Irvine Sustainability Initiative
This workshop roundtable provided a forum for Tribal officials and community organizations to discuss energy development and its impacts in Indian Country. The roundtable brought together Tribal officials, community representatives, federal and state officials, and experts on energy development and provided a foundation for future policymaking, dialogue, and advocacy.
Pilots in Species and Water Permit Coordination
July 30, 2015
Hosted by the Environmental Law Institute
This roundtable focused on the benefits, costs, and challenges of coordination of species conservation permitting under the Endangered Species Act with permitting under the Clean Water Act and other regulatory schemes. The regulatory processes for these overlapping regimes are fragmented, and there have been a number of recent attempts to coordinate agency assessments of projects under these parallel regimes. Based on this dialogue session and independent research, CLEANR published an article in the Environmental Law Reporter on the lessons of recent experiments in permit process coordination efforts for endangered species and aquatic resources in California. Future sessions on permit coordination, possibly including recent Congressional changes on permit coordination through the FAST Act, are being contemplated with the Environmental Law Institute.
Innovation in Habitat Conservation Planning
July 30, 2015
Hosted by the President's Council on Environmental Quality, and in partnership with the Center for Collaboration in Governance
Building on a series of roundtables held in February 2014, December 2014 and July 2015 on habitat conservation planning, this dialogue session will bring together experts from the White House Council on Environmental Quality, Department of Interior, Department of Transportation, Fish & Wildlife Service, Bureau of Reclamation, Army Corps of Engineers, state agencies, environmental organizations, industry, and academia. They will discuss innovation in the development and implementation of Habitat Conservation Plans. Two ancillary sessions will focus on 1) the coordination of wildlife conservation under the Endangered Species Act with the Clean Water Act and other regulatory schemes and 2) the funding of transportation, infrastructure, and wildlife conservation.Lessons from the Natural Community Conservation Planning Experience in Southern California
July 15, 2015
This roundtable built on the sessions in February and December of 2014 on habitat conservation planning and brought together a range of experts on Southern California’s Natural Community Conservation Plans (NCCPs). With the first NCCP implemented in Orange County, Southern California NCCPs provide over two decades of experience, and this dialogue asked participants to reflect on the program’s evolution and assess the extent to which these plans are achieving their goals. The dialogue focused on the lessons that can be learned for improving NCCP design and implementation moving forward and how the NCCP program compares to the federal Habitat Conservation Plan program.
This session was intended to inform the next dialogue in Washington, D.C. on July 30, 2015.
The Financing and Mitigation of Habitat Conservation through Infrastructure Planning
December 11, 2014
In partnership with the Center for Collaboration in Governance
As emphasized in recent federal initiatives, there is a growing recognition of the need to plan for, fund, and implement habitat conservation through more effective, efficient, and adaptive landscape-level infrastructure planning. Building on a February 2014 session on the lessons of area-wide multi-agency federal Habitat Conservation Plans, this dialogue brings together a range of experts to focus on applying this experience to the future planning and financing of habitat mitigation for infrastructure.
The Future of Habitat Conservation Planning
February 6–7, 2014
In partnership with the Center for Collaboration in Governance (CCG)
This dialogue session brings together a wide range of experts from government agencies, industry groups, and non-governmental organizations who have been on the cutting edge in the development of habitat conservation planning. The dialogue will ask participants to assess the evolution of the federal Habitat Conservation Plan (HCP) program and consider approaches for addressing past and future challenges to the effectiveness of HCPs. Dialogue sessions will focus on four key topics: (1) funding, (2) landscape-level planning, (3) climate change and (4) collaboration.
Southern California Tribal Water Forum
November 16, 2013
In partnership with Sacred Places Institute for Indigenous Peoples, UCI Sustainability Initiative, California Indian Environmental Alliance, and Seventh Generation Fund for Indigenous Peoples, Inc.
This roundtable sought to build tribal capacity regarding water issues in California. Tribal leaders had the opportunity to learn about regional, national and international tribal water campaigns; discuss the importance of water in Indigenous communities; strategize ways to address tribal water interests throughout the state; and hear about watershed management initiatives and tribal-eligible funding opportunities in California. The workshop concluded with an opportunity to learn about the Clinical Program at the School of Law.