Environmental Policy The environmental policy group, a division of The Keystone Center's Program for Science & Public Policy, provides neutral assistance to those seeking to gain greater understanding, build consensus and reach resolution around pressing environmental and public policy issues. The Center for Science & Public Policy draws upon the knowledge and creativity of stakeholders involved in collaborative problem solving to narrow differences and settle conflicts. We work with leaders, agencies, scientists, communities and others to improve decision-making by building productive relationships, identifying shared goals, managing competing interests and achieving mutual gains. The Keystone Center, combining tools such as facilitation, mediation, joint-fact finding and training, helps parties move efficiently and effectively to outcomes that best accord with their interests. In short, we work with parties to “explore where they want to go and help them get there.” The Keystone Center's work ranges from local to international in scope, from two parties with a single issue to complex dialogues involving multiple matters and parties. In every case, we help people solve problems and make informed decisions involving multiple points of view. Neutral and independent, The Keystone Center serves as a trusted bridge between those of differing perspectives as well as helping weave together the scientific and policy elements present in many environmental conflicts. The environmental practice encompasses projects as varied as those involving: • Chemical Weapons Destruction • Enforcement cases • National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) • Facility siting • Legislative, regulatory and policy development • Sustainable Development • Hazardous Waste Clean-up • Remediation and compensation • Transportation issues

Peter S. Adler, Janesse Brewer, Caelan McGee, "The Ok Tedi Negotiation: Rebalancing the Equation in a Chronic Sustainability Dilemma" August 24, 2007 Colorado Roadless Areas Review Task Force Working Group on Endangered Species Act Habitat Issues, Final Report Papua New Guinea, Western Province, Working Group on the 2006 CMCA Review St. Croix Problem-Solving Process

For more information, please contact Doug Thompson, Director, Environmental Practice at 508-468-5621. To order reports, please contact 970-513-5835.

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The Keystone Center Reports Findings of Endangered Species Act Dialogue, February 22, 2006
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The Keystone ESA Working Group on Habitat agrees that the present regulatory approach to habitat protection could be improved to better address the biological needs of species, increase transactional efficiency, and reduce the concerns of regulated parties. Although the group is not able to offer a single, comprehensive consensus based approach or construct, significant headway was made in clarifying some of the central issues and considerations regarding the habitat listed species need to recover. Further, the group concurs on a number of ways to strengthen recovery planning and on programs and procedures that can provide additional landowner incentives that, if instituted, promise to redound to the benefit of listed species.

Much of the group’s work was dedicated to exploring a potential new approach to habitat protection that would move away from the current critical habitat framework and build on three interdependent components:

1. Centralize the role of recovery and recovery planning;
   
   
2. Significantly boost the role of incentives; and
   
   
3. revise the §7 consultation standard.

Although the group did not reach consensus on a full and comprehensive construct, it generally agreed that, if such a construct could be developed, it would likely need to include the following elements: new provisions for integrating habitat protection and conservation into the ESA to replace the current critical habitat framework, a greater focus on the function, content, scope, and mechanics of recovery plans, clarification of the §7 standard, more effective incentives for non-federal parties, and new sources of funding for better coordinated and more workable ESA provisions pertaining to habitat.

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