We work to secure a future for all species, great and small, hovering on the brink of extinction. We do so through science, law and creative media, with a focus on protecting the lands, waters and climate that species need to survive. We’re now fighting a growing number of national and worldwide threats to biodiversity, from the overarching global problems of unsustainable human population and climate change to intensifying domestic sources of species endangerment, such as off-road vehicle excess. Now in our twenty-fourth year, we look forward to a future of continued expansion, creativity, and no-holds-barred action on behalf of the world’s most critically endangered animals and plants.

The Center for Biological Diversity knows law — and we’re good at it, winning positive outcomes for endangered species and sensitive wildlands in 93 percent of cases we file. We also know science — our expert biologists help us know which species and habitats need protection, why they need it and how it should be implemented to put them on the path toward recovery. Based on our unparalleled record of legal successes, we’ve developed a unique negotiating position with both government agencies and private corporations, enabling us, at times, to secure broad protections for species and habitat without the threat of litigation. We also work in another dynamic arena: Finding new ways to get the word out about saving species, climate change, unsustainable human population and all the other issues we work on every day.

The Center is uniquely capable of implementing its policy agenda. We are a national organization with offices in 10 states and the District of Columbia. Strategically, we expertly combine innovative legal expertise with up-to-date science, grassroots organizing and media savvy. Approximately 75 percent of the Center’s budget is spent on staff and direct staff expenses, allowing the Center to have 10 employees per million dollars where most national environmental groups have 4-5. This is an essential factor in the Center’s exceptional productivity. The Center’s budget increased from $1. 9 million in 2002 to over $7 million in 2012. Approximately 30 percent of our income is from foundations, 30 percent from very large donors, 30 percent from our members, and 10 percent from legal returns, which gives us a diverse but growing financial base. The Center has an exceptional record when it comes to garnering media attention for our work. We generate approximately 665 newsprint stories a month, making us the fourth-largest environmental media group in the country and number one by far in relation to its budget. We have over half a million members and on-line supporters, as well as deep and extensive links to environmental and conservation organizations across the country. As part of our advocacy efforts around climate change, for example, we helped to create a larger network of over 800 national, regional, and local groups working in defense of the Clean Air Act, Endangered Species Act, Clean Water Act and other environmental laws. Profiling the Center as “America’s most effective environmental law firm,” in his 2009 book Eco Barons, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Edward Humes concludes:“…during the past twenty years the Center for Biological Diversity has won close to 90 percent of its 500 cases. This unprecedented success rate has quietly transformed the American landscape, safeguarding hundreds of species from extinction and preserving million of acres of wilderness. The center has taken down off-roaders and off-shore oil drillers, developers and Detroit automakers, wolf haters and condor killers, and an alphabet soup of government agencies from Washington State to Washington, D. C. The Center for Biological Diversity has fashioned itself into the most effective environmental operation you’ve never heard of, routinely outperforming the better-known and more moneyed conservation organizations in exposing corruptions and official lawbreaking, then bending local governments, multinational corporations, and even presidents to its leaders’ will. Even its most ardent detractors concede this is not hyperbole. ”

The best measure of success is whether endangered animals and plants have a better shot at survival today than they did yesterday. And the unequivocal answer for hundreds of species in 2012 is yes — mostly because of the tenacious work of our staff here at the Center for Biological Diversity and your moral and financial support. Pacific leatherback sea turtles now have 40,000 square miles of protected habitat along the coasts of Washington, Oregon and California. Twenty-three newly protected species in Hawaii now have 40,000 acres to live free from harm and harassment. Two rare fishes here in the Southwest — the spikedace and loach minnow — now have 700 miles of protected streams. And in the second year of our historic agreement speeding protection decisions for 757 species, we’ve seen life-altering progress for dozens of animals and plants across the country, progress that will give them significantly and tangibly better odds of avoiding extinction. Just this year, 31 species were fully protected under the Endangered Species Act, including the coquí llanero tree frog in Puerto Rico and the Chupadera springsnail (which lives nowhere on Earth save two springs in New Mexico). Fifty-six more species were proposed for full protection, including the Florida bonneted bat, the Northwest’s streaked horned lark and Taylor’s checkerspot butterfly, the Jollyville plateau salamander in Texas and the Acuña cactus in the Southwest.

As ever, we can’t rest. In 2013 we are in pitched battles to keep drilling out of the Arctic; address climate change and ocean acidification; return wolves to the West Coast and protect populations elsewhere; prevent a hostile Congress from weakening environmental laws; save hundreds of species still flirting dangerously with extinction, and defend wild and beautiful places from profiteers who want to mine, drill, log and develop them into oblivion. We continue to expand our team of dedicated staff so we can make the largest nationwide impact possible.