The Institute

University of California, Berkeley
Institute for Parks, People, and Biodiversity

The University of California, Berkeley, Institute for Parks, People, and Biodiversity advances science and solutions to halt climate change, conserve biodiversity, and improve the experience of nature for all. The Institute conducts new scientific research and helps managers and policymakers apply the results to conservation of ecosystems around the world, especially in national parks and other protected areas. The University of California, Berkeley, has developed unique expertise in providing science to national parks, with more than a century of experience. The University established the Institute on October 24, 2017.

Public protection of land and water serves important roles for carbon solutions to climate change, resilience, endangered species, tropical forests, health and well-being, education, thriving economies, Indigenous cultures, and environmental justice. For these critical issues and other emerging questions, the Institute connects field managers and government policymakers to the high-level interdisciplinary research capabilities of the University of California, Berkeley.

Institute researchers also communicate science-based solutions to motivate public action and cultivate future conservation leaders. With new scientific insights, the Institute aims to advance meaningful progress for nature and people.

Goals

Halt climate change, through carbon solutions and resilience measures
Conserve biodiversity, especially in national parks and other protected areas
Improve the experience of nature for all, from cities to wilderness

Strategic Plan

Click here to view and download the Institute Strategic Plan 2023-2025

Science for Parks Video

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David Ackerly, Integrative Biology
John Balmes, Public Health
Steve Beissinger, Environmental Science, Policy, and Management
Stefano Bertozzi, Public Health
Eric Biber, Law
Jason Corburn, City & Regional Planning and Public Health
Holly Doremus, Law

Patrick Gonzalez, Environmental Science, Policy, and Management; National Park Service
Dacher Keltner, Psychology
Charles Marshall, Integrative Biology, Earth and Planetary Sciences
Adina Merenlender, Environmental Science, Policy, and Management
Arthur Middleton, Environmental Science, Policy, and Management
Jennifer Wolch, City & Regional Planning

The new institute continues Berkeley’s long tradition of involvement in the national parks system, starting with its very foundation. In 1915, Stephen T. Mather, class of 1887, and Horace M. Albright, class of 1912, gathered a group at Berkeley’s campus to plot a future for the country’s existing and evolving national parks. The result of their efforts was legislation establishing the NPS in 1916, with Mather serving as its first director and Albright as its second.

One hundred years after the founding of the NPS, Berkeley hosted the 2015 summit “Science for Parks, Parks for Science: The Next Century” to advance the conversation about the future of parks. In the wake of this summit, the institute will help prepare parks, people and biodiversity for multiple futures, incorporating the best available science. The institute will bring together Berkeley faculty, researchers and practitioners across diverse disciplines to chart the course of park and protected space management for future.