California Biodiversity Network

California Biodiversity Network

California Biodiversity Network

The California Biodiversity Network brings together key environmental experts and community leaders who are united to conserve California’s globally renowned and highly threatened natural heritage. This inaugural network aims to grow quickly to be inclusive across all sectors, engaging environmental stewards, governmental and tribal representatives, scientists, and educators working at local, regional, and statewide scales. The network provides a collaborative forum for California’s diverse conservation organizations and scientific institutions prioritizing biodiversity protection, stewardship, environmental education, and scientific inquiry.

The network will support the development and implementation of conservation actions, both governmental and non-governmental, under the four goals of the California Biodiversity Collaborative. It will focus on providing key technical and societal expertise to inform decision-making around biodiversity and framing collective efforts where most needed. With a broadly inclusive approach, this network aims to leverage the collective achievements of local, regional, and statewide efforts to realize a shared vision for a resilient and diverse California. As a first step, we will be engaging with stakeholders to prepare a report identifying priority research needs and information gaps that can support the implementation of California’s commitment to “30 by 30.”

White crowned sparrow

Shared Vision

We achieve better conservation outcomes by integrating collective efforts across institutions, protected areas, working lands, tribal lands, and urban landscapes. 
We enhance the health and climate resiliency of California  ecosystems by drawing on the best available science in support of conservation, including land acquisition, stewardship, rewilding, and habitat restoration.
We support statewide public education efforts and community science campaigns.
We improve equity, opportunity, and diversity within the field of conservation.  
We support diverse stakeholders—from Indigenous communities and private landowners to research institutions and local governments—to discover and frame new and inclusive pathways toward a more sustainable and resilient future.  

Guiding Principles for Building a Successful Network

  • Build pathways for collaboration between the State’s efforts and the knowledge and resources in the academic, non-profit, private sector and California tribal communities, especially in the contexts of science, citizen science, and stewardship.  
  • Ensure that there is equitable access to nature for all residents of California  
  • Respect indigenous traditional ecological knowledge and land stewardship 
  • Maximize, to the extent possible, resources via institutional collaboration instead of competition.  
  • Leverage our combined expertise, skills, existing partnerships, and land base.  
  • Align and optimize multiple efforts underway to protect and restore biodiversity.  
  • Integrate and analyze data relevant to conservation and land stewardship and set priorities for translating data to meet decision-makers’ needs.  
  • Advance large landscape conservation strategies.  
  • Share best practices and collaboration opportunities.  
  • Support an equitable and inter-generational pipeline for biodiversity leadership.  
  • Work Collaboratively through the CBN to advance biodiversity conservation 


Partners

The California Biodiversity Network welcomes additional partners; please contact us for more information on joining the group.

Acjachemen Tongva Land Conservancy

All Things Green PR

American Rivers

Cal Trout

Calflora

Cal-IPC

California Botanic Garden

California Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit

California Department of Fish and Wildlife

California Department of Parks and Recreation

California Institute for Biodiversity

California Landscape Conservation Partnership

California Landscape Stewardship Network

California Natural Resources Agency

California State University, Channel Islands

Coastal Quest

Conservation Biology Institute

Defenders of Wildlife

East Bay Regional Park District

Endemic Environmental Services

Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History

NASA JPL

National Park Service

Native American Land Conservancy

Natural Resources Defense Council

Oakland Museum of California

Oswit Land Trust

Parks Conservancy

Pepperwood

Point Blue Conservation Science

Robert Redford Conservancy for Southern California Sustainability, Pitzer College

San Diego Natural History Museum

Santa Cruz Mountains Conservancy

Sonoma Land Trust

Sustainability at Pitzer College

The Nature Conservancy

The Tree Pledge

The Trust for Public Land

United States Air Force

Big Horn Ships

Steering Committee

David Ackerly, Rausser College of Natural Resources, UC Berkeley (chair)
Christina Sloop, California Department of Fish & Wildlife, Science Institute (co-chair)
Ana Alvarez, East Bay Regional Parks District
Shannon Bennett, California Academy of Sciences
Dick Cameron, The Nature Conservancy
Madeline Drake, California Department of Fish & Wildlife, Science Institute 
Mike Kisgen, University of California Natural Reserve System
Jon Jarvis, Berkeley Institute for Parks, People & Biodiversity
Adina Merenlender, UC Agriculture and Natural Resources
Lisa Micheli, Pepperwood


CBN Roundtables 

Emerging Network Roundtables provide spaces for relationship-building, information exchange, and sparking of new collaborations between practitioners. Participation is open to Network signatories. Roundtable themes are generated by Members who are welcome to propose new roundtables or working groups to the Steering Committee. To date, the Sentinel Site Network Roundtable is the only group that has established regular meetings, while others listed below are in their formative stages.


Climate-Biodiversity Sentinel Site Network Roundtable

Lisa Micheli, Christina Sloop, Co-Chairs 
The vision of a statewide “Sentinel Site” network is to provide a consistent and continuous coupled climate-biodiversity monitoring framework for the diverse ecosystems of California. This system would leverage existing long-term data sets and fill gaps in our understanding of climate and ecosystem change over time. Tracking standardized climate and biodiversity indicators across the state through a public-private partnership network of sentinel sites will provide an empirical basis for acquisition and stewardship priorities, an early warning system for biodiversity at risk, and metrics to measure restoration successes. The goal of this Roundtable is to inventory current and ongoing monitoring efforts, define gaps that should be filled, and advance a multi-party integrated monitoring system. Results will be shared to inform public and private decision-making and conservation action.


Stewardship Roundtable

Adina Merenlender, Don Hankins, & Mary Adelzadeh, Co-chairs
Planning for biodiversity conservation in the context of most large landscapes includes spatial and temporal connectivity of species and ecosystems considering major pressures like climate change, land conversion, pollution, habitat degradation, etc. It also considers the State’s 30×30 initiative to protect at least 30 percent of land and waters within the state and 30 percent of the coastal waters by 2030. Should we consider the additional protection and designation of biological hot spots as California and the federal government so that their integrity is maintained for future generations?Working lands, including farmland, rangelands, and forests, comprise a significant portion of California’s open lands and play an important role in large-scale biodiversity conservation through both their capacity to support some biodiversity directly and by serving as viable corridors between protected lands. How can the management of these working lands be harnessed most effectively in supporting biodiversity conservation?


Biodiversity Informatics & Community Science Roundtable

Shannon Bennett, Chair 
California has exceptional collections of biodiversity spread across university, NGO, and agency resources, yet there also remain significant spatial and taxonomic gaps. Biodiversity data span the collections in California’s museums, and include data from field surveys and ecological research, community science, and more. These data are foundational for understanding the loss of California’s biodiversity, anticipated changes due to climate change, documenting spatial prioritization, land use planning, stewardship of protected lands, and inspiring community members of all ages about the uniqueness of California’s biodiversity and the responsibilities of a conscientious State citizen to stem further biodiversity losses. Informatics tools are also essential to liberate these data and integrate them with other spatial and biological databases. Many stakeholders have advanced discussions about next steps in this area as an essential component of the support for the California Biodiversity Collaborative. 


Systematic Conservation Planning Roundtable

Dick Cameron, Chair 
This roundtable addresses the opportunity to develop a broadly sourced set of priority areas and strategies for biodiversity conservation that accounts for the many social and economic co-benefits that conservation provides. Leveraging the effort of both the Stewardship and Informatics roundtables, this roundtable will collaborate with state and federal agency partners to develop data, analyses, and tools to identify spatial opportunities for strategies such as improved land management, habitat restoration, and land acquisition. This roundtable will be designed to complement and support efforts led by the Natural Resources Agency to advance Nature-based solutions and 30×30 goals.