On California’s south-central coast, conservation is part of our identity. The 1969 oil spill off Santa Barbara helped galvanize the modern environmental movement, and generations of area advocates have carried that legacy forward. After 30 years in this region’s conservation movement, I have seen the wins, the losses, and the persistence required to defend hard-fought progress. But today’s challenges call for an even broader approach — one that recognizes that water quality, ocean health, wildlife, native plant habitats, and other conservation issues are not separate concerns. They all play a role in biodiversity: the extraordinary variety of life and the relationships that sustain it.
As defined by Article 2 of the Convention on Biological Diversity, and as supported by the United Nations, “biodiversity” can be defined as the variability among living organisms from all sources including, inter alia, terrestrial, marine and other aquatic ecosystems and the ecological complexes of which they are part; this includes diversity within species, between species and of ecosystems. Biodiversity goes far beyond wildlife or individual species and matters because it underpins the ecosystem services that support human well-being, including food production, pollination, water purification, disease regulation, soil fertility, carbon storage, and resilience to climate extremes. As biodiversity declines, these systems become less stable and less capable of supporting human societies and economies, much less themselves.
Unfortunately, we are in a biodiversity tailspin: It is estimated that in the United States, 40 percent of animal species and 34 percent of plant species are at risk of extinction, while about 40 percent of ecosystems are at risk of extinction or collapse (source: Center for Biological Diversity). Grasslands, wetlands, forests, freshwater systems, pollinators, and amphibians are among the most threatened groups. California, a global biodiversity hotspot, is not immune, and we’re seeing some of the same patterns here as we’re witnessing across the country and globally. But for the first time, some of the same local, powerhouse organizations that fueled our early environmental wins are joining up with a new wave of conservation-minded leadership to address these biodiversity challenges. It could not come a moment too soon…