Participants at the 2013 National Park Service/National Geographic BioBlitz at the Jean Lafitte National Historical Park and Preserve near New Orleans, Louisiana. Photograph by Elena Rue.
“By working together to build a broad and authentic grassroots community of people who have a deep and personal experience of nature—who explore and participate in the science of biodiversity and the practice of global biodiversity conservation—we can encourage a public citizenry who understands how the complex and intricate web of biodiversity supports the fabric of our lives and who, through that knowledge, begins to seed this understanding into our cultural DNA and the way we engage with the living world.”
—Paula Ehrlich, President and CEO of the E.O. Wilson Biodiversity Foundation, from “Biodiversity and national parks: What’s relevance got to do with it?”
In the Park Science Magazine article, “Biodiversity and national parks: What’s relevance got to do with it?”, NPS Director Glenn Plumb, NPS Director Sally Plumb, Edward O. Wilson, and E.O. Wilson Biodiversity Foundation President & CEO Paula Ehrlich assess how the National Park Service will effectively champion meaningful biodiversity conservation into the future.
The article recommends several approaches to help foster a culture of stewardship and encourage conversation about biodiversity conservation at the national level. These approaches include:
• supporting biodiversity discovery in our National Parks
• expanding literature on biodiversity
• raising awareness about biodiversity through education and engagement in our National Parks
• partnering with organizations who share the mission of biodiversity conservation
• communicating the importance of national parks as “final sanctuaries of our transcendent heritage.”
“In the not too distant future, we will look back and recognize that sometime near the transition to the 21st century, biodiversity became one of the defining characteristics of the American experience.”
—from “Biodiversity and national parks: What’s relevance got to do with it?”
Related: Learn more about the Foundation’s work with the NPS Biodiversity Youth Ambassadors and the Collaborative Storytelling Project
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