Date: Wednesday July 29th from 12-1 pm (MDT)
Hosted by: University of California, Berkeley, Institute for Parks, People and Biodiversity

The North American Wilderness and Protected Area Committee analyzed the status of protected areas for the entire continent for the World Parks Congress and determined that US, Canada and Mexico are at 12% of their land base in protected areas, short of the Aichii Target 11 CBD 2020 Goal of 17%.  The new Convention on Biodiversity goal is expected to be 30% by 2030.  More importantly though, is whether the existing areas actually protect current biodiversity and if the nation commits to increasing from 12% to 30%, which lands are the most important to protect if biodiversity is set as the primary goal. The panelists on the webinar will explore the current effectiveness of biodiversity conservation, especially in light of climate change, within existing national parks, wilderness areas, national conservation areas and other legally protected federal and state public lands and discuss actions needed to meet the Convention on Biological Diversity goals of 30 by 30.  

Panelists:

• Dr. Patrick Gonzales, Associate Adjunct Professor, UC Berkeley, and Principal Climate Change Scientist, U.S. National Park Service. Gonzalez is a lead author of the ecosystems chapter of the next Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change assessment.

• Jane Rogers, Chief of Science and Resource Stewardship, Joshua Tree National Park: Rodgers has been a visible leader in climate change adaptation and biodiversity conservation in the California desert.

• Dr. Justin Brashares, UC Berkeley Professor, G.R. & W.M. Goertz Chair. Brashares is currently working with the National Geographic Society and the Wyss Foundation to bring specific goals to the Convention on Biodiversity 30 by 30 Goals

Moderator:

• Jonathan (Jon) Jarvis, Chairman of the Board for the Institute for Parks, People and Biodiversity at the University of California, Berkeley and former Director of the National Park Service and inaugural Executive Director of the Institute for Parks, People, and Biodiversity.  

Patrick Gonzalez is a climate change scientist and forest ecologist. He conducts research on human-caused climate change and carbon solutions and works with local people, national parks, and policymakers to conserve ecosystems and protect human wellbeing. Patrick has conducted field research in Africa, Latin America, and the United States and published new scientific insights in Science, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA, and other journals. He is a lead author on four reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the organization awarded a share of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize

Jane Rodgers is the Chief of Natural and Cultural Resources at Joshua Tree National Park, California.  She began her career as a Peace Corps volunteer in the Republic of Niger, West Africa and joined the National Park Service in 1994 as a vegetation specialist operating the native plant nursery at Joshua Tree National Park.  She has worked as a biologist at Grand Canyon National Park and Point Reyes National Seashore and is a highly-respected leader in biodiversity conservation and climate adaptation.

Justin Brashares: The catastrophic global decline of biodiversity is widely recognized as among the most pressing problems we face as a society. The biological, economic and social consequences of depauperate oceans, tundras, savannas and forests remain unclear and in desperate need of study. Brashares’s research attempts to understand how our consumption of wild animals and conversion of natural habitats affects the dynamics of animal communities and the persistence of populations. Work in Brashares’s group extends beyond traditional animal conservation to consider the economic, political and cultural factors that drive and, in turn, are driven by, changes in wildlife abundance and diversity. Through these efforts, the Brashares group strives to propose empirically-based, interdisciplinary strategies for biodiversity conservation.

Jonathan (Jon) B. Jarvis served as the inaugural executive director and now chairman of the board for the Institute for Parks, People and Biodiversity at the University of California, Berkeley.   Prior to that he served 40 years with the National Park Service as ranger, biologist and superintendent in national parks across the country.  In 2009, he was nominated by President Obama and confirmed by the Senate as the 18th Director of the National Park Service (NPS), serving for the entire Obama administration. During his tenure, he led the agency through its Centennial, adding 22 new parks, achieving its largest budget in history and raising over $400 million in philanthropic support. His most recent book, co-authored with Clemson Professor Dr. Gary Machlis, is “The Future of Conservation in America: A Chart for Rough Water”, from the University of Chicago Press.