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UCLA faculty and researchers participate in the City of Los Angeles’s new biodiversity initiative

View of homes and treetops in Los Angeles.
The City of Los Angeles passed a resolution to invest in biodiversity research with the objective of creating a biodiversity index and policy for the city.


On May 10, 2017,  the Los Angeles City Council passed a resolution that directs city staff to explore the development of a city-wide biodiversity index and to determine the city’s score on the Singapore Biodiversity Index. The resolution was developed under council member Paul Koretz who had been advocating for an L.A. biodiversity policy and index since 2016. UCLA Environmental Science and Engineering doctoral student, Isaac Brown, leads the analysis. Brad Shaffer, professor of ecology and evolutionary biology; Tom Gillespie, professor of geography; assistant adjunct professor Ryan Harrigan; Dan Cooper, PhD student in ecology and evolutionary biology; and Casandra Rauser, PhD, UCLA Sustainable LA Grand Challenge director now sit on the city’s biodiversity task force.