North American Grasslands Alliance: A Framework for Change

Commission for Environmental Cooperation

Stemming out of the North American Free Trade Agreement, the Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC) is a tri-national organization working to execute the North American Agreement on Environmental Cooperation. In 2013, the CEC published a conservation framework focused on the “spine” of North America: the North American grasslands. 

The framework was one of two main aspects of a 2011 CEC project entitled North American Grasslands: Management Initiatives and Partnerships to Enhance Ecosystem and Community Resilience. The same CEC project also established the North American Grasslands Alliance (NAGA) and an online tool to disseminate nearly 100 different beneficial management practices to private landowners and other land managers.

The report’s Framework Summary includes NAGA’s proposed Enabling Conditions, Objectives, Principles, and overarching Vision. The document itself is a brief read as it consists of clear, concise diagrams that help to outline the various concepts of the framework; it is intended to be a supplement to the North American Agreement on Environmental Cooperation.  The NAAEC corresponds with various aspects of NAFTA and seeks to reaffirm the Stockholm Declaration on the Human Environment of 1972 and the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development of 1992.

http://www.cec.org/sites/default/files/inc/grasslands/NAGA_eng_final_print.pdf

See a basic overview of the North American Agreement on Environmental Cooperation here: http://www.cec.org/about-us/NAAEC

Read the full North American Agreement on Environmental Cooperation here: http://www.cec.org/sites/default/files/naaec.pdf