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Council Projects

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> Strategy development
> Incentives
> Pilot Projects
> Education and Outreach

The work of the Washington Biodiversity Council is to address one of the most pressing environmental issues of our time: How to conserve our state's native plants, animals, and ecosystems for current and future generations.

Washington Biodiversity Conservation Strategy:

One of the Council's primary charges has been to develop a 30-year prioritized strategy that enables the state to sustainably protect its biodiversity heritage.

After three years of work, the Washington Biodiversity Council has delivered the Washington Biodiversity Conservation Strategy: Sustaining Our Natural Heritage For Future Generations (5 MB pdf).

To view the table of contents and download sections of the strategy, click here

The Executive Summary (1.2 MB pdf) of the strategy is also available. To request a hard copy of the strategy or the executive summary, please
contact us.

The strategy is designed to conserve Washington’s unique plant and animal communities. It was released in front of a crowd at the Biodiversity Conservation Conference: What Works, What’s Next on December 4th.
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Landowner Biodiversity Conservation Incentives

The Council has conducted an assessment of existing landowner biodiversity conservation incentive programs and hosted a number of dialogues with interested parties to explore key issues and possible new approaches.

 The largest of these was a one-day Forum for Landowner Conservation Incentives, hosted by the Council on January 5th, 2007. Whether you attended the forum or not, we invite you to browse through the proceedings and read the day’s discussions of new tools and opportunities for making incentive programs more effective for landowners, agencies, and others. 

In response to the tremendous interest evident at the Forum, the Council is sponsoring the Washington Conservation Incentives Listserv. The intent of this discussion list is to provide an opportunity to share information about how landowner incentives and market-based programs can help achieve biodiversity conservation and preservation of agricultural and forestry landscapes in Washington State.

The Stewardship and Incentives section of this website provides basic information about conservation incentives available in Washington and a compilation of reports, studies, and analyses.

The Washington Biodiversity Conservation Strategy (5 MB pdf) contains recommendations for improving conservation incentives in Washington. Please take a look and tell us what you think.

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Pilot Projects

The Council worked with partners in eastern and western Washington to complete two biodiversity conservation pilot projects. The general goals of the pilots are to demonstrate new models for promoting incentive-based conservation tools and to engage citizens in biodiversity conservation. Each of the projects is exploring different approaches to achieve these goals. more>

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Education and Outreach

The Council has produced several educational documents on aspects of biodiversity conservation. These include a brochure about biodiversity and the Council, a report on the status of and threats to Washington’s biodiversity, and a report on climate change and the future of biodiversity in Washington.

In addition, we invite you to explore this website for much more information and links to a wealth of resources from other organizations.