The U.S. Global Change Research Program, which coordinates federal research and investments in understanding and responding to the forces shaping the global environment, engaged in a public consultation process on the outline for the U.S.’s first National Nature Assessment. This assessment seeks to document the “status, observed trends, and future projections of America's lands, waters, wildlife, biodiversity, and ecosystems and the benefits they provide, including connections to the economy, public health, equity, climate mitigation and adaptation, and national security."
Policy Integrity suggested changes to the outline in general and provided specific comments on some individual chapters, as requested. Our main comments suggested that the Assessment should seek conceptual clarity and position itself relative to other related efforts in the U.S., such as the National Strategy for Natural Capital Accounting and the White House Report to the National Climate Task Force that establishes a roadmap of using nature-based solutions. We identified significant overlaps that should be addressed to avoid duplicate work and inconsistencies. Our comments also suggested that the Assessment should seek to separate conceptually Environmental Justice (which plays a prominent role in the Assessment) from equity and use a consistent definition of Environment Justice throughout. Finally, we suggested addressing the issue of monetization of ecosystem services, as this is especially important given the Assessment's goal to incorporate diverse worldviews and understandings of nature.