Research Reports

The Environmental Law Institute (ELI) and the University of North Carolina Institute for the Environment (IE) have released a report identifying opportunities to coordinate habitat conservation and hazard mitigation planning in areas at risk of flooding and other natural hazards.

This report offers model language that could be incorporated into in-lieu fee program instruments being developed by state agencies and non-profit organizations. It was designed to comply with the 2008 Compensatory Mitigation Rule. It was developed using the best available information and uses examples from the approved and draft in-lieu fee instruments that were available as of December 2009. Funding for this project was made possible thanks to a grant provided by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Marine spatial planning (MSP) has gained increasing international attention as a tool for implementing ecosystem-based management, reducing user conflicts, and ensuring the sustainable use of ocean and coastal resources. While the President’s Interagency Ocean Policy Task Force developed recommendations for a federal MSP framework, the Environmental Law Institute and Ocean Conservancy have released a report, Marine Spatial Planning in US Waters, that reviews federal ocean and coastal laws, identifying the obstacles and opportunities they present for federal MSP.

With support from the David and Lucile Packard Foundation and input from many ocean and coastal management experts, the Environmental Law Institute produced this Handbook to identify successful approaches to implementing marine ecosystem-based management (EBM), describe their limitations, and highlight opportunities to apply them in the future. This Handbook provides a spectrum of examples that take steps toward EBM. It is designed to share a variety of approaches that may be useful in different settings depending upon regional needs and opportunities.

ELI has collaborated with the Friends of the Capt. John Smith Chesapeake Trail, and the National Geographic Society to produce this special report, along with an appendix and map, recommending the development of a bold and coordinated strategy for conserving the Chesapeake’s treasured landscapes and calling for more federal investment in land conservation.