Learn more about Vermont’s 30x30 process and join the public meeting of the VT Conservation Strategy Initiative (VCSI)!
Farmer Stipends Available for Attending
Use the “Farmer Stipend Registration” button below to sign up for a stipend!
*You must register for the 6/27 meeting AND register for a stipend separately*
When? Thursday, June 27th from 4:00pm - 7:00pm on Zoom
What? The Vermont Conservation Strategy Initiative (VCSI) seeks to conserve 30% of Vermont by 2030 and 50% of Vermont's land base by 2050 in alignment with the international goals set at the United Nations. It is part of the vision of Act 59 (2023) to enhance support for the working lands. The Vermont Housing and Conservation Board (VHCB) and the Agency of Natural Resources (ANR) have been charged with developing a Conservation Plan by December 2026 that includes a review of existing conservation categories and an inventory of conserved land. At this public meeting, the draft inventory report will be presented. The VCSI was an information-gathering process and was not subject to public meeting laws. All of the recommendations of the report were shaped by ANR and VHCB staff without formal stakeholder engagement or endorsement of specific recommendations.
Rural Vermont was a stakeholder in the Agricultural Lands Working Group (ALWG) of the VCSI inventory phase of this process. Due to a lack of a formal review process for stakeholders to approve recommendations made on behalf of the ALWG, the Vermont Healthy Soils Coalition, the White River Natural Resources Conservation District and Rural Vermont withdrew their signatures from the final report. Furthermore, instead of reflecting the actual discourse of the ALWG in opposition to Payments for Ecosystem Services and the Financialization of Nature (PES), favorable framing on the subject was included in the report’s final language after the working group meetings had concluded. *For more information on the financialization of nature, the role of carbon markets in relation to programs like 30x30, please scroll to the bottom of this screen….
Join Rural Vermont in allyship against carbon trading schemes that allow fossil fuel companies and polluting industries to justify their continued and increased emissions of greenhouse gasses, through investing heavily in propping up scams like soil and forest offsets and conservation policy based on measured outcomes (More info in Rural Vermont's action alert from March here).
How? Support this work locally by showing up at the Zoom public meeting of the VCSI on June 27 (limited farmer stipends available, please sign up directly below); please listen and ask for recommendations that are equitable and informed by the voices and needs of those who work the lands. Oppose the development of carbon markets nationally and globally by signing on to this letter from the Indigenous Environmental Network, the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, the National Family Farmer Coalition, and Food & Water Watch. Finally, please share this work with your network!
*You must register for the 6/27 meeting AND register for a stipend separately*
Understanding the dark side of carbon markets & 30x30
Rural Vermont, the National Family Farm Coalition, La Via Campesina, and many other organizations which we have been allies with over time have long been opposed to the concepts of, and the implementation of, strategies and tactics referred to as “the financialization of nature” (find a glossary of terms here). This includes concepts such as “Net Zero”, “off-sets” (carbon, biodiversity, etc.), and “Payments for Ecosystem Services” (which are fundamentally different from, for example, NRCS payments for implementation of conservation practices, in that the payments are based on off-sets and “net zero” frameworks), “nature-based solutions”, 30x30 / 50x50, etc.
These are all understood as terms and models prioritized by large corporate actors and governments that monetize the real and potential public good outcomes of agriculture in the form of off-sets and markets, justifying and exacerbating ongoing pollution, environmental racism, and consolidation and concentration of power, wealth, and land by agribusiness and others. The push for the development of carbon markets in Vermont and worldwide is related to Greenhouse Gas Emission Reduction Targets which are anchored in international law in Article 6 of the Paris Climate Agreement. President Biden’s America the Beautiful campaign further reinstates national “net-zero” targets that rely on carbon offset trading.
For more information and resources about 30x30, please click on the button below.