Promoting the conservation of natural resources and encouraging risk mitigation efforts along densely populated coastlines in the United States are the best avenues toward managing risk and reducing economic losses, the Reinsurance Association of America testified last month.

In a hearing before the House Subcommittee on Insular Affairs, Oceans and Wildlife on Managing Ocean and Wildlife Resources, Franklin W. Nutter, RAA president, said, “The importance of risk management to the conservation of our ocean, coastal ecosystems and wildlife resources in an increasingly unpredictable environment should be abundantly obvious.”

He said the degree to which coastal areas “have been urbanized and the increasing value at risk–higher property values in higher risk areas–demonstrates the need for federal initiatives that encourage natural disaster mitigation and assistance to protect not only people and property but environmentally sensitive habitats along our coastlines as well.”