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.

The Nicholas Institute, in collaboration with the U.S. Department of the Interior, developed an interactive version of the DOI Nature-Based Solutions Roadmap with a new database of more than 400 case studies. One of the Nicholas Institute experts who led the project discusses some of the resource’s features and its applications for DOI staff and beyond.

NESP engages more than 2,000 public and private sector stakeholders to enhance collaboration within the ecosystem services community and strengthen coordination of policy, market implementation, and research at the national level. NESP’s research, products, and regular webinars help advance innovative, sustainable approaches to managing natural resources.

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.

Nineteen individuals and teams were recognized Thursday with Climate Commitment Leadership Awards at the annual Duke Climate Commitment Celebration event. Award recipients included Nicholas Institute experts Kay Jowers, Lydia Olander, Ashley Ward and Katie Warnell.

Understanding effectiveness of nature-based solutions projects will be key for scaling up implementation. In a LinkedIn article, Nicholas Institute experts Katie Warnell and Lydia Olander discuss the findings of their new analysis of 27 public nature-based solutions databases and identify several ways to improve how data are collected and shared.

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.

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.