Environmental protection: 30x30 goals: land conservation: stewardship.

Centering the 30x30 conservation effort within California’s policy toolkit, Assembly Member Papan frames the measure as a directive to the Natural Resources Agency to elevate stewardship of conserved lands by developing strategies to reduce barriers and broaden support, in alignment with the Pathways to 30x30 findings and the state’s ongoing progress reporting. The core change is to formalize stewardship as a distinct focus within the state’s 30x30 framework and to require an integrated stewardship section in the annual progress report generated for 2027 and beyond.

The bill obligates the Natural Resources Agency to work in collaboration with stakeholders, California Native American tribes, and relevant state agencies to prepare a dedicated stewardship portion of the 2027 progress report. The stewardship section must cover nine elements: an estimate of backlog, critical, recurring, and future stewardship needs across the state with associated costs (using datasets existing on or before a specified date); case studies of effective stewardship; a review of stewardship best practices incorporating new technology and innovative methods; a valuation of the benefits of stewardship for biodiversity and ecosystem services; identification of ecological workforce needs and training opportunities; a review of co-benefits including recreation, wildlife habitat, carbon sequestration, water and air purification, and climate regulation; recommendations to increase and improve stewardship, including ways to reduce barriers and expand federal, state, and local support; recommendations to increase ancestral land return; and recommendations to increase consultation and partnerships with tribes and tribal practitioners. The update must also specify that stewardship encompasses science-based management, adaptive management, traditional ecological knowledge, and other land management practices across all land types, and it must be posted on the agency’s website.

Implementation details and procedural context are anchored to existing law governing the 30x30 progress report. The new obligation adds a targeted stewardship component to the annual progress reporting cycle, without creating a separate standalone report. The bill specifies that there is no explicit appropriation within its text, and that the Fiscal Committee will review fiscal implications, signaling that any associated costs would be addressed within the agency’s existing resources or future budget processes. Datasets used for backlog and cost estimates may draw from federal, state, local, tribal, private, and tribal land manager sources, provided those datasets exist by a March deadline, and the resulting stewardship update is to be publicly accessible on the Natural Resources Agency’s website.

Within the broader policy landscape, the measure situates stewardship as more than land designation by urging formal consideration of workforce needs, funding considerations, and tribal partnership, including recommendations on ancestral land return and enhanced tribal consultation. It builds on the Pathways to 30x30 framework and the governor’s 30x30 objectives by translating high-level findings into a concrete, codified reporting requirement. While the bill does not create new enforcement powers or direct funding, its emphasis on collaborative production, public posting, and a comprehensive content agenda may influence future budgeting, program design, and intergovernmental coordination around conservation stewardship. Minor drafting issues appear in the text, such as a stray typographical error in one subsection and a misspelling within the co-benefits item, but these do not alter the substantive obligations described.