Brad Shaffer quoted in article about biodiversity research funding

There is an estimated $598-billion funding gap between the spending on global biodiversity conservation and the total biodiversity protection needed across the globe, according to the Paulson Institute’s Financing Nature 2020 report — something that researchers may experience in Greater Los Angeles.

Three ecology researchers said having the financial resources to study animals and their relationships to humans — from urban to rural settings — is important to all organisms.

“If you buy into the notion that having biodiversity around you is good for people, then we have to understand enough of the ecology and the biology of the relevant biodiversity in the area to be able to keep it with us,” said H. Bradley Shaffer, distinguished professor in UCLA’s Ecology and Evolutionary Biology department and professor at the Institute of the Environment and Sustainability.

Read the article by Ali Levens in the Pepperdine University Graphic