(a) The department may approve a regional conservation investment strategy pursuant to this chapter. A regional conservation investment strategy may be proposed by the department or any other public agency or federally recognized tribe and shall be developed after consulting with local agencies that have land use authority within the geographic area of the regional conservation investment strategy.

(b) The purpose of a regional conservation investment strategy shall be to inform science-based nonbinding and voluntary conservation actions and habitat enhancement actions that would advance the conservation of focal species, including the ecological processes, natural communities, and habitat connectivity upon which those focal species depend, and to provide nonbinding voluntary guidance for one or more of the following:

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(1) Identification of wildlife and habitat conservation priorities, including actions to address the impacts of climate change and other wildlife stressors.

(2) Investments in resource conservation.

(3) Infrastructure.

(4) Identification of areas for compensatory mitigation for impacts to species and natural resources.

(c) A regional conservation investment strategy shall include all of the following:

(1) An explanation of the conservation purpose of and need for the strategy.

(2) The geographic area of the strategy and rationale for the selection of the area, together with a description of the surrounding ecoregions and any adjacent protected habitat areas and linkages that provide relevant context for the development of the strategy.

(3) The focal species included in, and their current known or estimated status within, the strategy area.

(4) Important resource conservation elements within the strategy area, including, but not limited to, important ecological resources and processes, natural communities, habitat, habitat connectivity, and existing protected areas, and an explanation of the criteria, data, and methods used to identify those important conservation elements.

(5) A summary of historic, current, and projected future stressors and pressures in the strategy area, including climate change vulnerability, on the focal species, habitat, and other natural resources, as identified in the best available scientific information, including, but not limited to, the State Wildlife Action Plan.

(6) Consideration of major water, transportation and transmission infrastructure facilities, urban development areas, and city, county, and city and county general plan designations that accounts for reasonably foreseeable development of major infrastructure facilities, including, but not limited to, renewable energy and housing in the strategy area.

(7) A statement explaining how the strategy will be in compliance with all applicable laws and does not preempt the authority of state or local agencies, to implement infrastructure and urban development in local general plans.

(8) Conservation goals and measurable objectives for the focal species and important conservation elements identified in the strategy that address or respond to the identified stressors and pressures on focal species.

(9) Conservation actions, including a description of the general amounts and types of habitat that, if preserved or restored and permanently protected, could achieve the conservation goals and objectives, and a description of how the conservation actions and habitat enhancement actions were prioritized and selected in relation to the conservation goals and objectives.

(10) Provisions ensuring that the strategy is consistent with and complements any draft natural community conservation plan, approved natural community conservation plan, or federal habitat conservation plan that overlaps with the strategy area.

(11) An explanation of whether and to what extent the strategy is consistent with any previously approved state or federal recovery plan, or other state or federal approved conservation strategy that overlaps with the strategy area.

(12) A summary of mitigation banks and conservation banks approved by the department or the United States Fish and Wildlife Service that are located within the strategy area or whose service area overlaps with the strategy area.

(13) A description of how the strategy’s conservation goals and objectives provide for adaptation opportunities against the effects of climate change for the strategy’s focal species.

(14) Incorporation and reliance on, and citation of, the best available scientific information regarding the strategy area and the surrounding ecoregion, including a brief description of gaps in relevant scientific information, and use of standard or prevalent vegetation classifications and standard ecoregional classifications for terrestrial and aquatic data to enable and promote consistency among regional conservation investment strategies throughout California.

(d) A regional conservation investment strategy shall compile input and summary priority data in a consistent format that could be uploaded for interactive use in an internet website and that would allow stakeholders to generate queries of regional conservation values within the strategy area.

(e) In addition to considering the potential to advance the conservation of focal species, regional conservation investment strategies shall consider all of the following:

(1) The conservation benefits of preserving working lands for agricultural uses.

(2) Reasonably foreseeable development of infrastructure facilities.

(3) Reasonably foreseeable projects in the strategy area, including, but not limited to, housing.

(4) Reasonably foreseeable development for the production of renewable energy.

(5) Draft or approved natural community conservation plans within the area of the applicable regional conservation investment strategy.

(Amended by Stats. 2022, Ch. 463, Sec. 2. (AB 2805) Effective January 1, 2023.)