Executive Summary
Durability by Design
The whiplash that greets each new presidential administration has become one of the defining challenges of American conservation. Policies enacted with great effort under one administration are rolled back by the next, then partially restored when the political pendulum swings back. Conservation groups and their funders must spend enormous amounts of resources defending yesterday’s victories instead of investing in tomorrow’s opportunities. This cycle fundamentally prevents the long-term, adaptive stewardship that healthy ecosystems require.
This durability problem is not simply a product of partisan polarization beyond our control. It is also a product of choices conservation advocates make: whom we engage, how we build coalitions, which policy tools we choose, and how we design programs for implementation. Durability must be designed. A recent analysis written by AUTHORS, draws on interviews and case studies to identify four lessons for designing conservation policies and programs built to survive political change.
Lesson 1
Appeal to Values, Bolstered by Economics
Durable conservation is built on shared values. Polling consistently shows that conservation crosses partisan lines. Americans of all political persuasions support clean water, healthy wildlife, and access to outdoor recreation. The problem is conservation advocates have too often pursued policies that feel disconnected from those values, or that impose costs on communities without delivering visible local benefits.
Science shows that success in conserving the nation’s land, water and biodiversity requires conserving large landscapes across public, private and tribal lands. Successfully conserving large landscapes across public, private, and tribal lands depends on our ability to work across diverse stakeholders, including farmers, ranchers, forest landowners, tribes, state and local governments and many others. When advocates turn off key constituents, conservation loses the people and organizations it needs to last.
KEY INSIGHTS
Appealing to values is critical, but considering the economic impact of conservation policies is also important for durability.
Conservation advocates should focus on where interests intersect; not on “trade-offs and balance.”
Lesson 2
Build Durable Coalitions by Design
Durable conservation is built upon the breadth and depth of the stakeholder coalition behind it. A coalition composed primarily of environmental organizations and Democratic elected officials can achieve an initial conservation victory and still lack the strength to hold it when the political environment changes. The same is true of coalitions dominated by national organizations working on issues that are local or regional at heart.
The coalitions that produce durable conservation consistently include constituencies that reach across partisan lines and include voices from the communities most directly affected.
KEY INSIGHTS
The Republican champion can be the critical variable.
Coalition-building takes time and requires leadership.
It is critical to have a transparent and genuinely responsive process.
Lesson 1
Build Policies & Programs to Last
Even a broad, well-constructed coalition cannot protect a policy that is poorly conceived or is economically disconnected from the communities it affects. Bringing those affected by a policy or program into their design produces better, more durable solutions.
KEY INSIGHTS
Public Lands & Wildlife: Empower collaboratives to design land management plans and restoration projects.
Private & Working Lands: Deploy voluntary, incentive-based approaches delivered through partnerships at scale and Innovation.
Tribal Lands: Prioritize engagement and partnership
Lesson 4
Plan for Implementation
Implementation - policy choices for how the conservation will actually be delivered on the ground, by whom, and how it is funded - is a critical component to durability. When implementation of conservation programs and policies is strong,
stakeholder and political support for those programs and conservation thrives; when implementation is poor, stakeholder and political support suffers. Thus, if implementation is not addressed thoughtfully, a brilliant policy design and broad stakeholder coalition may still fail to result in a durable conservation policy or program.
KEY INSIGHTS
Agency capacity, commitment, and resources for a program are the indispensable delivery mechanism for most programs.
Bureaucratic red tape undermines the durability of conservation programs and policies if it prevents the program from doing work on the ground and serving community needs.
Place-based collaborative governance that bring together together landowners, agencies, conservation groups, and community members around a shared commitment is critical to deliver ongoing results.
Establishing an administrative home for policy implementation that is effective and durable is critical.
Conclusion
Durability As Strategy
Durability does not happen by accident, by the force of good science alone, or by the passion of committed advocates. It requires the patient work of building relationships, the discipline of designing for breadth rather than purity, and the strategic foresight to invest in institutions and communities. That work is harder than winning a single legislative battle or policy campaign, but it is the work that produces conservation that lasts.
These findings underscore why the American Nature Strategy developed by the U.S. Nature Initiative is built the way it is. Its four lessons shape how the Strategy sets its ten-year goals and how it builds the campaigns to reach them, starting where conservation still wins across party lines and designing every win to survive the next election.