The diversity of species that inhabit a particular place comprise its biodiversity. Since biodiversity is distributed irrespective of political or legal jurisdictions, it makes sense to manage our biologically diverse natural heritage on an ecosystem basis.
However, using nature's boundaries requires coordinating the conservation strategies of local, state, and federal resource agencies, and enlisting and integrating the support and participation of landowners, grassroots and watershed groups, environmentalists, academics, and locally based stewards of the land for our resource agencies.
Since 1991, the California Biodiversity Council has represented a new and different framework by which to protect and sustain California's vast natural resources and rich cultural heritage and allow for compatible economic development.
The Council was not created to establish new projects independently or become another bureaucracy. Rather, our purpose is to discuss, coordinate, and assist in developing strategies for conserving biodiversity. We exchange information, resolve conflicts, and promote development of local and regional practices to conserve biodiversity.
In the past three years, we have realized beyond our expectations the value of better coordination. Council membership has more than tripled since the original 10 signers put their pens to the agreement , and now encompasses a broader and more diverse range of interests: water, wildlife, fish, forests, habitat, soil, pollution, mining, energy, transportation, and agriculture.
Today, the Council has 35 members, including nine regional associations of county supervisors, 13 state agencies, 11 federal agencies, the University of California, and the California Association of Resource Conservation Districts. (See the Council Roster on page 11.)
The Council has served as a catalyst in the creation of local watershed groups, and engendered support and guidance for bioregional programs such as CERES, the Resources Agency's high-technology System that collects natural resources information and makes it available over the Internet; the Natural Community Conservation Planning (NCCP) program; and the Sierra Nevada Ecosystem Project (SNEP), which is compiling data about this forested bioregion.
It also is our mission to reach out into the communities, where resource conservation strategies are implemented. The council holds numerous forums with watershed groups for a better understanding of local issues. To bring us even closer to communities, we hold council meetings across California in places like the Sierra, San Diego, the Central Coast, and Napa County. We will convene in Eureka in September and in Barstow in December. As we visit the different ecosystems of the state, we hope to increase the participation and understanding of all Californians about the meaning and value of biodiversity, and our efforts and activities to enhance and sustain it.
Douglas P. Wheeler is California's Secretary for Resources.