While state and federal environmental protection agencies often draw the most attention in the public eye, local governments every day make innumerable decisions with significant implications for California's protection of biodiversity. The land use planning authority of local governments makes them key players in deciding whether to enhance, maintain, or lessen the quality of our natural environment.

Together, federal, state, and local governments share a complex web of interacting authorities and responsibilities for the protection of our natural environment. From the outset, it has been a goal of the California Biodiversity Council (CBC) to acknowledge these complexities and to ensure that this web is not an impediment to effective resource management. Through the associations of county supervisors, regional associations of governments, or the Regional Council of Rural Counties (RCRC), every county is represented on the Council. The CBC has worked to strengthen ties with local government by providing discussion forums, coordination, and technical assistance in the development of local and regional strategies to conserve biodiversity.