Roundtables

Individuals wishing to join a Roundtable, and/or be added to our mailing list please click here.

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, Steve Monfort, 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
The Stewardship roundtable is intended to be a community of practice among professionals working on land and water stewardship of protected area networks and working lands in California. Here ideas about stewardship, ecosystem restoration, landscape resilience, and related topics can be shared freely from all perspectives. To start, we will be identifying near-term research priorities and information needs as part of the California Pathways to 30×30 report. The Roundtable structure and activities will be further defined by the participants and adapt to changing interests and times moving forward. 
 
Since time immemorial, the Indigenous peoples in what is now known as California upheld traditional responsibilities to steward the lands and waters through kinship systems and reciprocity and remain committed to the stewardship of their homelands. This stewardship has shaped the genetic, species, and ecological diversity that is found in California today. The CBN Stewardship Roundtable respects and honors the relationships, knowledge, and traditions that connect Indigenous peoples to their homelands, and also acknowledges the exclusions and erasures of many Indigenous peoples in this state as well as their conservation actions. Recognizing the inherent relationship between biodiversity and Indigenous cultures, we seek to embrace ecocultural equality as a central tenet of biodiversity conservation and stewardship.  

To meet the Stewardship Roundtable Participants, click here

Biodiversity Informatics & Community Science Roundtable

Shannon Bennett, Daniel Gluesenkamp, Rosemary Gillespie, Melanie Gogol-Prokurat, Ryan Hill, Rebecca Johnson, Kari Lewis, Alison Young, Co-chairs
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. 

The Biodiversity Informatics and Community Science and Systematic Conservation Planning roundtables met together in a 2022 planning workshop. To meet the participants, click here

Systematic Conservation Planning Roundtable

Sam Veloz, Kristin Byrd, Ryan Hill, Kari Lewis, and Melanie Gogol-Prokurat, Co-chairs
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.