Our Mission
The Institute for Biodiversity and the Environment exists to inform and motivate the conservation, preservation, and restoration of biodiversity, and the environment upon which it depends, through research, education, and the dissemination of knowledge.
- We will engage in impactful interdisciplinary environmental research and scholarship, across the sciences and social sciences, addressing both theoretical and applied questions at the local, regional, and global scales.
- We will foster interdisciplinary dialogue as a means of resolving environmental concerns that relate to the natural and social sciences.
- We will seek a broad understanding of how past and present processes, cultures, and institutions affect local, regional, and global environments.
- We will implement both short-term studies that address relevant questions for conservation decision makers and long-term studies that monitor trends in biodiversity.
- We seek to inform strategic decision-making and adaptive management in government agencies, private industry, environmental nonprofits, policy makers, and others who are responding to the biodiversity crisis.
- We desire to train the next generation of problem solvers who leverage skills and techniques from a multitude of disciplines to generate practical solutions to the biodiversity crisis.
- We seek to bridge coordination and communication gaps across administrative boundaries within and between government agencies, environmental nonprofits, private landowners and industries, and other stakeholders.
We define biodiversity as all the ways living organisms interact with other living organisms and the nonliving environment at multiple levels throughout all of life; this includes the levels of the molecular, cellular, organismal, population, species, community, ecosystem and the entire biosphere. Biodiversity refers to the number of species in a particular area as well as…
- the genetic diversity within and among populations.
- the diversity of adaptations that have evolved within populations that have responded to past environmental change.
- the diversity and distinctiveness of species compositions and the interactions among ecological communities.
- the diversity of ecological interactions (e.g., mutualisms, predation, competition, parasitisms, pathogens, etc.) among organisms, including the interactions of microbes, fungi, plants, and animals, including humans, with each other and with the nonliving environment.
- the diversity of functions and services provided by ecosystems.
- the diversity of interactions between distinct ecosystems across the broader landscape.
- the diversity human interactions with the living and nonliving environment.
We believe that biodiversity is a priceless treasure that must be understood, conserved, preserved, and restored. Our main reasons for valuing biodiversity and the environment are as follows:
- We value biodiversity because it provides direct benefits to humankind. Biodiversity enriches our lives, maintains our spiritual, mental, and physical health. In addition, as the foundation of our global economy, biodiversity provides economic benefits through recreational opportunities, food, medicine, and many other products that we consume.
- We value biodiversity, not solely because of the benefits that it provides to humankind, but because it has value in and of itself. Biodiversity has intrinsic value regardless of whether humanity places value on it.
- We recognize that humankind is also part of and dependent upon the ecosystems in which we live. We must, therefore, conserve biodiversity for future generations as we consume resources for our present needs. We must also work to protect biodiversity where it presently receives minimal impact from humankind. We must restore biodiversity where it has been impacted adversely by humankind for the enjoyment of future generations.
- We acknowledge that we are in a global biodiversity crisis and experiencing an unprecedented loss of biodiversity, including a loss of genetic diversity, species, and ecosystem function, due to environmental change from anthropogenic drivers, including human land use and climate change.
