Climate Solutions

Natural Climate Solutions

Maintaining and restoring key ecosystems will help combat climate change and biodiversity loss.
Become a climate advocate

Many of the places that serve as critical bird habitat also have the potential to absorb greenhouse gases and naturally store carbon. These forests, grasslands, working lands, coastal ecosystems, and other landscapes can also help protect drinking water sources, make food systems more resilient, and reduce climate risks like flooding, drought, and extreme heat. That is why Audubon is working to conserve and maintain more lands and water bodies across the Americas to combat the climate and biodiversity crises.

Investing in the integrity and resilience of farms, fields, wetlands, mangroves, and other key ecosystems will help achieve this goal. Landowner and community engagement play a vital role in management and stewardship. 

Audubon is working with partners to bring nature-based solutions and bird-friendly practices to these landscapes to achieve conservation and sustainable-development impacts at a significant scale. This work includes the Conservation Ranching initiative, which offers incentives for good grassland stewardship through a certification label on beef products in the U.S., and the Americas Flyways Initiative, which is building strategic partnerships to mobilize private and public funding for natural climate solutions and bird-friendly infrastructure in Latin America and the Caribbean. Staff are also engaged in local and regional projects like the conservation of mangroves and salt marshes, some of the most carbon-rich ecosystems. 

 

Did you know?
  • Audubon’s 2021 report identified 538 million acres of priority forest, 76 million acres of priority grasslands, and 24.7 million acres of priority coastal wetland habitats in the U.S. 
  • In Colombia, the Sustainable Cattle Ranching Playbook developed by Audubon and partners is now used by cattle ranchers associations to promote bird conservation across landscapes. 
  • More than 100 ranches in the U.S. now carry the Audubon Certified bird-friendly seal, a package label that recognizes lands managed for birds and biodiversity.

What We're Doing

1
Advocating for science-based policies at the national, state, sub-national, and local levels. 
Staff work to promote the advancement of natural climate solutions through public policies that provide incentives for conservation.
2
Carrying out and supporting on-the-ground conservation action.
Our staff are working on projects that protect nature and restore natural ecosystems.
3
Working with partners to make working lands more bird friendly.
Through programs like Conservation Ranching, regenerative agriculture, and Bird-Friendly Maple, participants adopt sustainable approaches and manage their lands to improve bird habitat. 

Natural Climate Solutions Throughout the Hemisphere

Regenerative Agriculture Across the Americas

Audubon aims to bring bird-friendly practices to 4.7 million hectares of productive lands in Latin America and the Caribbean, increasing habitat, carbon-storage capacity, and habitat connectivity across landscapes.
Read about it
Black-bellied Whistling-Duck
Ducks and Geese
News

Mangroves, a Line of Defense Against Climate Change

The Americas are home to 46,284 square kilometers of unparalleled natural wealth that for years has been overlooked and often an underestimated treasure: the mangroves.
Read about it
Mangrove Cuckoo
Cuckoos, Roadrunners, Anis

Intact Forests Trap Carbon and Help Birds

Projects like Audubon's Bird-friendly Maple program and Audubon Certified Forester program help support forests, landowners, birds—and provide ways to keep carbon out of the atmosphere.
Read about it
Scarlet Tanager
Cardinals, Grosbeaks and Buntings

Audubon's Conservation Ranching Program

To combat the negative effects of grassland degradations—and to keep grass on the landscape—Audubon has developed the Conservation Ranching Initiative. This market-based conservation approach offers incentives for good grassland stewardship through a certification label on beef products.
Read about conservation ranching
!
Bobolink
Blackbirds and Orioles
Climate Solutions
Maintaining and Restoring Natural Habitats to Help Mitigate Climate Change

Audubon’s 2021 Natural Climate Solutions Report studied ecosystems across the U.S. that are critical to both carbon storage and to birds, both now and under future climate change, and found that these regions often overlapped.  

Read more

The Latest

Washington Legislature Passes Strongest Clean Energy Bill in the Pacific Flyway, Sends to Governor
April 11, 2019 — Statewide grassroots effort by Audubon Washington and partners paved way to establishing a 100 percent clean energy standard.
Climate
Use Your Birding Skills to Support Audubon's Newest Community Science Program
May 02, 2018 — Climate Watch explores how North American birds are responding to climate change and runs from January 15 through February 15. Sign up today.
Climate
Dumping Coal Is Easy. But Who Will Divest the Rest?
September 14, 2015 — A growing number of institutions are letting their money do the talking.
Climate
Can We Learn to Handle the Heat of Forest Fires?
August 28, 2015 — With climate change turning up the temperature and the state in a four-year drought, wildfires are scorching California like never before. In the “nuke zone” scientists are looking for clues to how forests cope.
Climate
Paddling Around the World for Climate Action
July 09, 2015 — A grandfather’s fight against climate change is propelling him across the globe by way of kayak.
Climate
Join our Climate Community
Climate