Section 1930 Of Chapter 12. Significant Natural Areas From California Fish And Game Code >> Division 2. >> Chapter 12.
1930
. The Legislature finds and declares that:
(a) Areas containing diverse ecological and geological
characteristics are vital to the continual health and well-being of
the state's natural resources and of its citizens.
(b) Many habitats and ecosystems that constitute the state's
natural diversity are in danger of being lost.
(c) Connectivity between wildlife habitats is important to the
long-term viability of the state's biodiversity.
(d) Preserving and connecting high-quality habitat for wildlife
can create habitat strongholds.
(e) Increasingly fragmented habitats threaten the state's wildlife
species.
(f) There is an opportunity to provide incentive for private
landowners to maintain and perpetuate significant local natural areas
in their natural state.
(g) Efforts to preserve natural areas have been fragmented between
federal, state, local, and private sectors.
(h) Analysis of the state's habitat connectivity benefits from the
consideration of all relevant data, including information from
private and public landowners.
(i) The department's existing mapping activities and products
should be developed and sustained.
(j) The importance of wildlife corridors to assist in adapting to
climate change has been recognized by such groups as the Western
Governors' Association, which unanimously approved a policy to
protect wildlife migration corridors and crucial wildlife habitat in
2007. Individual local, state, and federal agencies have also adopted
policies aimed at protecting wildlife corridors and habitat
connectivity, in order to protect ecosystem health and biodiversity
and to improve the resiliency of wildlife and their habitats to
climate change. However, these efforts could be enhanced through
establishment of a statewide policy to protect important wildlife
corridors and habitat linkages where feasible and practicable.