The Nature Activation Hub brings together tools, guidance and resources to help decision-makers and practitioners integrate nature's benefits into decision-making. The hub builds on the Nicholas Institute’s two decades of actionable research and purposeful partnerships focused on nature-based solutions, ecosystem services and natural and working lands.

Today the United States Department of the Interior launched a digital Nature-Based Solutions Roadmap, developed in partnership with the Nicholas Institute for Energy, Environment and Sustainability at Duke University. This free public resource will serve as a user-friendly and accessible guide for implementing nature-based solutions.

The Atlantic Conservation Coalition—comprised of four mid-Atlantic states, The Nature Conservancy and Duke University—received a Climate Pollution Reduction Grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for a variety of nature-based projects aimed at reducing carbon emissions. Duke experts will lead reporting on the progress of the 21 projects, which will conserve or restore more than 200,000 acres of coastal habitats, forests and farmland in North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia and Maryland.

The U.S. Global Change Research Program has announced Lydia Olander, Nicholas Institute program director, as one of more than 150 experts who will write the first-ever National Nature Assessment. The assessment will take stock of nature’s inherent worth, as well as what it provides to culture, health and well-being, jobs and livelihoods, safety and more.

An executive order signed Monday by North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper launched an ambitious initiative to conserve and restore the state's forests and wetlands, reports Coastal Review. Katie Warnell, senior policy associate at the Nicholas Institute, said the order also addresses many data gaps and limitations that "hinder planning for the sustainable management of North Carolina’s lands and waters."

North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper issued an executive order Monday to permanently conserve and reforest North Carolina’s wetlands and to plant urban trees, activities that could replenish 3 million acres by 2040, reports NC Newsline. "The order’s ambitious goals for land conservation and restoration will preserve and enhance the many benefits North Carolina’s natural and working lands provide to everyone who lives in or visits the state," said Katie Warnell, senior policy associate at the Nicholas Institute.

North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper on Monday signed an executive order designed to support sustainable management of the state’s forests, farms and wetlands. In North Carolina, these natural and working lands provide numerous social, economic and environmental benefits, including sequestering carbon and supporting ecosystem and community resilience. Nicholas Institute experts Lydia Olander and Katie Warnell provided comments for the media.

The new Office of Climate and Sustainability brings together several of Duke University's climate, energy, and environmental assets—including the Nicholas Institute—to help advance the mission of the Duke Climate Commitment.

Restoring pocosin wetlands represents an opportunity for North Carolina to combat climate change while supporting community health, wildlife and recreation, write Katie Warnell (Nicholas Institute for Energy, Environment & Sustainability) and Curt Richardson (Duke University Wetland Center) in a LinkedIn article.

Duke University is one of 11 consortium members of the Southeast Climate Adaptation Science Center. Hosted by North Carolina State University for the next five years, the center provides actionable science to help Southeastern communities and ecosystems adapt to a changing climate.