A natural working lands strategy seeks to increase carbon sequestration and reduce greenhouse gas emissions in and on farms, forests, grasslands, wetlands, and urban lands. New Jersey’s Department of Environmental Protection and the Department of Agricultural are working in partnership to develop the state’s Natural Working Land Strategy. The Strategy will identify and prioritize near-term, cost-effective, and pragmatic solutions, such as natural resource stewardship and management, as well as longer-term actions that require more effort and funding, including potential legislative or programmatic changes, through recommendations.

The purpose of this strategy is to develop a policy for the management of natural and working lands and the attendant actions to implement the policy. Each recommendation will be developed with consideration of many co-benefits, such as ecological resilience and community resilience, in addition to the carbon sequestration benefits. For each recommendation, we will also develop;

1) near-term actions that explain in detail the next steps required to carry out the recommendation, and

2) specific targets that address how much progress should be made within a certain timeframe (e.g. protect X acres by X year).

These will be derived based on current scientific data and input from experts.