California Air Resources Board

Making sure California is on track in terms of land management

The California Air Resources Board (CARB), working alongside the California Natural Resources Agency (CNRA) and the California Department of Agriculture (CDFA), have set targets for implementing an extensive set of land management practices over the next 20 years that are collectively referred to as ‘Nature-Based Solutions’. Examples of Nature-Based Solutions include conducting prescribed fire and fuel reduction on burnable landscapes to minimize the risk catastrophic wildfires; restoring disturbed, damaged, or historically altered landscapes; and conserving existing habitat and biodiversity through more guided stewardship of high-priority natural and working lands. While these targets have already been set, the Nature-Based Strategies Program is further responsible for standardizing the methods by which these land management activities are reported and otherwise tracked.

Because CARB also has a mandate to identify and track the State’s path to achieving carbon neutrality by 2045, it must further assess the influence that land management activities are having on landscape carbon stocks and greenhouse gas emissions under present and future climate scenarios.  The Nature-Based Strategies Program is responsible for providing the data and analysis to support this objective; primarily through its Natural and Working Lands Carbon Inventory initiative.  The Nature-Based Strategies Program is also responsible for providing the State legislature with a more detailed analyses of how various management practices are specifically affecting the carbon stocks and greenhouse gas emissions of California’s forests.