The Global Conservation Act would:

• Safeguard the freshwater supply of hundreds of millions of people.
• Reduce greenhouse gas emissions by billions of tons, equivalent to taking millions of automobiles off the roads or eliminating hundreds of coal-fired power plants.
• Provide more than $1.1 trillion of value per year in economic services including disaster mitigation, health protection, fresh water, food production and climate regulation.
• Conserve or ensure sustainable development on millions of square miles of land and sea.
• Prevent the extinction of millions of species.

How it Works

The Global Conservation Act of 2010 has four key components:

1. Establishes a National Strategy to Combat the Crisis
   • Identifying measurable goals, benchmarks and timeframes for action.
   • Coordinating the international conservation activities of all federal agencies.
   • Integrating conservation needs into development assistance, key foreign policies, and select security priorities.
   • Improving U.S. policies that can undermine conservation abroad.
2. Identifies a Conservation Coordinator in the Executive Branch to Ensure Action
   • Overseeing implementation of the strategy.
   • Certifying the adequacy of agency budgets for implementing the strategy.
   • Translating strategic priorities into specific programmatic recommendations to agency heads.
   • Measuring progress toward the strategy’s benchmarks.
3. Adopts Mechanisms for Consultation, Transparency, and Accountability
   • Organizing an interagency working group to ensure agencies have input into the strategy and its implementation.
   • Creating a private sector advisory committee to introduce the best scientific expertise and the points of view of important public constituencies.
   • Requiring annual progress reports and a major program review that are disseminated broadly.
4. Urges the President to Convince Other Nations to Join in a Global Strategy
   • Identifying innovative and efficient multilateral mechanisms to allow other donor nations to participate.
   • Reducing duplication of efforts among nations and ensuring neglected priorities receive attention.