Our Wildfire Strategies program aims to achieve a more wildfire-resilient California and Western United States by 2030 through better policy and significantly increased funding for forest management, community resilience and home hardening, Tribal leadership on forest stewardship and fire management, and public health measures that protect people from the impacts of smoke. The program supports research, coalition-building, budget advocacy, and tests innovative proofs of concept for broader adoption.
Public Funding & Policy
Wildfire Strategies Program
California Climate Leadership Program
The California Climate Leadership Program (CCLP) aims to renew and accelerate the pace of California’s leadership on climate change. The program focuses on building strong and diverse coalitions, coordinating and launching strategic communications efforts including research and messaging to counter the fossil fuel industry narrative, and supporting organizations driving climate leadership in California. CCLP engages funders, advocates, and other partners to advance new policies to substantially reduce carbon emissions by 2030 while building social, economic, and environmental resilience to intensifying climate change impacts.
Climate Power Education Fund
The Climate Power Education Fund is a strategic, national communications and media operation focused on building political will and public support for bold climate action, using research, polling, earned media, paid media, and creative digital content. It works to raise awareness of the threat of climate change to spur a national conversation on solutions and wage offensive campaigns against climate deniers and fossil fuel industry backers.
Website: https://climatepowered.us/
Campaign for Nature
This initiative is focused on establishing a new global goal of conserving at least 30 percent of the planet’s land and ocean in a natural state by 2030. Campaign for Nature staff work closely with leaders around the world to develop more ambitious international conservation targets through the Convention on Biological Diversity, increase financing for biodiversity conservation, and advance rights for Indigenous Peoples. The “30×30” conservation target is based in science and is designed as a rights-based approach to conservation to help reduce mass species extinctions and the devasting impacts of climate change as well as decrease the risk and impact of future pandemics.
Website: www.campaignfornature.org
Northwest Mexico Land Conservation
Since 2008, under this program RLF implements a coordinated, adaptive framework to concentrate conservation investments in coastal priority areas on the Baja California Peninsula, systematically preserve the landscape integrity of the region, and prevent further fragmentation of coastal and marine habitats. RLF undertakes a multi-faceted approach to its work in Northwest Mexico, including land protection, capacity building, policy, and communications activities. RLF also coordinates with other grant makers and grantee networks to create synergies that multiply the impact of individual projects.
Ocean Defense Initiative
Ocean Defense Initiative works to strengthen ocean conservation leadership and raise the profile of the ocean climate nexus among decisionmakers and the public. The project supports policies that would leverage the ocean as a source of climate solutions, benefit ocean wildlife, protect ocean ecosystem health, and ensure the sustainable use of the ocean and its resources in a changing climate.
National Ocean Protection Coalition
Launched in 2018, the National Ocean Protection Coalition leads a group of more than 40 ocean-focused organizations defending America’s most treasured ocean places. The organization provides leadership, strategy, and coordination to a national marine monument defense campaign and is laying the groundwork to regain and expand marine protections.
Website: www.oceanprotectioncoalition.org
Federal Fisheries Policy Coalition
Established in 2015, the project is a coalition of national ocean fish conservation organizations working in close coordination to preserve and, where possible, advance conservation gains in U.S. marine fisheries policy and management. Project priorities include ecosystem-based fisheries management and promoting climate-ready fisheries in the United States.
Sustaining California’s Ocean
The Sustaining California’s Ocean (SCO) program builds on more than a decade of RLF support for the Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) Initiative, a public-private partnership that established the nation’s first science-based network of marine protected areas (MPAs) in 2012. California’s MPA network protects nearly 17 percent of nearshore waters including some of the state’s most iconic and beloved coastal areas. SCO cultivates a new approach to managing ocean and coastal habitats through inclusive partnerships to advance research and monitoring, stewardship, and compliance. SCO also seeks to modernize California’s ocean governance by helping to build capacity, leadership, and financing among local, Tribal, and state governments and nonprofit organizations to effectively implement and manage the MPA network over the long term.
California Coastal Program
Established in 2012, the California Coastal Program (CCP) seeks to elevate coastal conservation as a priority for California policymakers. The program works to advance funding and policies that address important threats, such as sea level rise, to coastal and marine resources and communities, promote equitable public access to beaches and other coastal resources, and ensure public agencies and officials are accountable for strong coastal management.
Equitable Infrastructure for Los Angeles
With the passing of Measures A, M, and W in Los Angeles and California Proposition 68—all developed and passed with the help of our partners—Los Angeles is poised to transform communities with billions of dollars of public funding for parks, transportation, drinking water, and coastal protection. Working with local groups, RLF is advancing a vision that will drive these new public funds toward priority parks and multiple-benefit infrastructure projects in disadvantaged communities. This Los Angeles-focused program, launched in 2019, builds on RLF’s successful track record of policy and funding work and community engagement to leverage and mobilize recently created public funding sources to ensure the funds deliver on their promise to reach the county’s neediest communities.
Related Publications and Blogs:
California Environmental Equity Initiative
California Environmental Equity Initiative (CEEI) seeks to strengthen California climate and environmental policies and increase public funding to address intersecting environmental, climate, social, and health issues that disproportionately impact low-income communities and communities of color. CEEI focuses on building capacity, power, and leadership among younger, more ethnically diverse leaders, organizations, and coalitions advocating for environmental outcomes that benefit their communities and better meet the needs of California’s most marginalized residents. The program supports community-driven efforts that increase access to parks, public lands, and safe drinking water and build resilience to climate change in ways that enhance justice, health, and well-being.
Center for Western Priorities
The Center for Western Priorities works to advance responsible conservation and energy practices in the West through the release of reports, polls, videos, podcasts, and earned media events. CWP encourages open, public debate and works to advance those discussions online, in the media, and throughout Western communities.
Website: https://westernpriorities.org
