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Washington Biodiversity Council

Our Mission

The Washington Biodiversity Council is working to sustain and promote biodiversity as the full range of life in all its forms, explain its vital importance in Washington’s economy and our quality of life, and encourage citizens to advance the stewardship of our natural heritage for future generations.

Our Focus

The Washington Biodiversity Council works to implement the Washington Biodiversity Conservation Strategy, which focuses on six major areas: guiding investments, incentives and markets, land use and development, science and information, education and outreach, and achieving results.

Areas of Focus

Guiding Investments

The Washington Biodiversity Council developed the Conservation Opportunity Framework, a tool to classify lands based on their biodiversity significance and the risks from growth and development. Using this tool, the Council prepared a set of regional maps that can be used to help identify biodiversity conservation opportunities and priorities throughout the state.

Incentives and Markets

The Washington Biodiversity Council recognizes the important and valuable efforts of private landowners to steward the state’s biodiversity resources. It is working to make voluntary stewardship and conservation more accessible, practical, and rewarding.

Land Use and Development

Washington’s local governments wrestle daily with the state’s rapid growth. The Washington Biodiversity Conservation Strategy contains five strategies and fifteen recommendations designed to improve how biodiversity conservation priorities and tools are incorporated into land use planning processes, development actions, and management activities.

Science and Information

Decades of scientific inquiry and study have contributed immensely to knowledge of Washington’s biodiversity. The aims of the Council’s work and the Strategy’s recommendations are to strengthen scientific understanding of Washington’s biodiversity and to make information readily available to policy makers.

Education and Public Engagement

Education is a crucial component of the Washington Biodiversity Conservation Strategy.  The Council’s objective is to inform, educate, and engage students and the public about the importance of biodiversity to quality of life and to build capacity to conserve, steward, and restore ecosystems.

Achieving Results

The long-term success of biodiversity conservation in Washington requires leadership and accountability. The Washington Biodiversity Council is coordinating initial implementation of the strategy and developing a biodiversity scorecard to measure how the state is doing.

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