California is the fifth largest economy in the world, with a rapidly growing population and economy sustained and enriched by its biodiversity. The state will continue to grow rapidly in the next half-century. In 2018, California adopted policy for cross-sector efforts to integrate biodiversity protection into the state’s environmental and economic efforts. This California Biodiversity Initiative (CBI) is harnessing public and private sector capacity to secure the future of all native biodiversity in a global conservation hotspot. The session will highlight opportunities to build and implement commitments to prevent extinctions, protect and restore ecosystems, and engage and empower the public through public-private, indigenous and cross-sector partnerships. It will focus on California as a diverse setting where action in the last half-century have recovered imperiled species and ecosystems, and where government action has mobilized concerted pursuit of ambitious biodiversity targets.
