Colorado Grasslands, USA

Sustainable Development Goals

In addition to delivering emissions reductions to help take action to combat climate change (SDG 13), the project delivers other sustainable development benefits. The following SDG impacts are currently indicative and subject to change upon further analysis:  

• Life on Land: The land contains shortgrass prairie, intermittent and perennial riparian areas, and season wetlands that are home to rare, threatened, endangered and endemic flora and fauna. The land provides food, shelter, breeding ground, and migration corridors for several wildlife species, including Colorado Species of Special Concern such as swift fox and ferruginous hawk, State Threatened species such as burrowing owl, and populations of the Colorado green gentian and rare dwarf milkweed on the property.  SPLT uses grazing animals such as native ungulates like bison, elk, deer, and pronghorn, to naturally maintain the health of the rangeland. With no hunting, commerce nor recreation on the property, these species are able to thrive. The Great Plains of America cover 2.9 million square kilometres. Unfortunately, only 1-2% of this land is protected in parks or conservation lands 
• Quality Education: SPLT allows public access to the property for educational purposes. Forty students in the fifth grade of the local public school, Las Animas Elementary, come and spend a day at SPLT once a year to gain hands-on experience learning about botany, zoology, and geology.