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Pennsylvania Biodiversity Partnership 2004 Conference: Welcome

Economic Prosperity and Biodiversity Conservation:
Planning for Pennsylvania's Future
Harrisburg, PA
November 9-10, 2004

Greetings!

On behalf of the Pennsylvania Biodiversity Partnership (PBP), welcome to Economic Prosperity and Biodiversity: Planning for Pennsylvania’s Future and thank you for assisting in the development of a statewide plan for biodiversity conservation. Through an extensive public input process as well as many discussions among PBP members, a list of draft issues and recommendations has emerged for this plan.

Our goal for this conference is to bring together biodiversity experts, state and local government officials, policy-makers, business and industry representatives, conservation practitioners, land managers, environmental educators, and others concerned with biodiversity to review and discuss these issues and recommendations. Your thoughtful comments and input during the conference will be integrated into the concurrent session documents in your conference packet to produce the Draft Pennsylvania Biodiversity Conservation Plan, which will be then be available for additional public review.

This is the second conference hosted by PBP, an organization that was formed in response to a recommendation in the Report of the Pennsylvania 21st Century Environment Commission that a broad-based public-private partnership be formed to coordinate activities on protecting and conserving native species and their habitats. PBP brings together organizations and individuals with diverse interests and backgrounds, but with the shared vision of conserving biodiversity. Despite differing backgrounds, a consensus emerged that a comprehensive statewide plan for protecting Pennsylvania’s biodiversity must be developed and implemented, and we have pursued that goal since 2001.

I hope that you will find the conference and its many networking opportunities to be a stimulating, energizing, and motivating experience. Please be frank and open in expressing your ideas, questions, and comments - we need YOUR input! In addition to your participation in the conference, please take a few moments before you leave to complete the Conference Survey (pink form) and the Biodiversity Information Needs Assessment (ivory form) and return them to the container on the registration table.

Thank you for your support of collaborative statewide planning for biodiversity.

Sincerely,

Sue Thompson
PBP President