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7 Shocking Victories And Urgent Campaigns By The Center For Biological Diversity You Need To Know In 2025

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The Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) remains one of the most aggressive and effective environmental non-profit organizations in the United States, utilizing science, law, and creative media to protect endangered species and wild places. As of late 2024 and into 2025, the organization has secured a flurry of critical legal victories and launched high-stakes campaigns that define the current landscape of conservation, focusing intensely on the climate crisis and systemic attacks on the Endangered Species Act (ESA). The CBD’s strategy of strategic litigation continues to force federal agencies, including the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, to uphold their legal duties, directly leading to new protections for dozens of imperiled animals and plants across the nation.

The fight for biodiversity is more urgent than ever, with the CBD’s recent work demonstrating that legal and policy advocacy is a powerful tool against habitat loss, the fossil fuel industry, and legislative efforts to weaken environmental laws. This article provides a comprehensive, up-to-date look at the organization’s structure, core mission, and the most significant victories and campaigns that are shaping the future of life on Earth right now.

Organizational Profile: The Center for Biological Diversity (CBD)

The Center for Biological Diversity is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit membership organization dedicated to protecting endangered species and their habitats through science, law, and creative media. Its history and structure are foundational to its high-impact legal strategy.

  • Founding Date: 1989
  • Founding Location: Gila Wilderness, New Mexico (founded beneath ancient ponderosa pines).
  • Co-Founders: Kieran Suckling, Peter Galvin, Todd Schulke, and Robin Silver.
  • Headquarters: Tucson, Arizona.
  • Core Mission: To secure a future for all species, focusing on the protection of lands, waters, and climate that species need to survive.
  • Primary Method: Strategic litigation, often filing lawsuits against federal agencies (like the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the U.S. Forest Service) for alleged failures to enforce the Endangered Species Act.

The CBD’s 7 Biggest Legal Victories and Policy Wins in 2024–2025

The Center for Biological Diversity’s impact is most clearly seen in its legal docket. The period of late 2024 and early 2025 has been particularly fruitful, demonstrating the organization's relentless pursuit of federal compliance with environmental law. These victories secure real-world protections for vulnerable species and critical habitats.

1. Securing Endangered Species Act Decisions for 76 Species

In a massive legal victory announced in January 2025, the CBD successfully secured deadlines for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) to make final listing decisions for 76 species across the country. This win was the result of litigation challenging the agency’s delays in responding to 2020 petitions. This decision forces the FWS to stop dragging its feet and to provide a path to protection for a diverse group of imperiled animals and plants, ensuring the Endangered Species Act is properly enforced.

2. Upholding Protection for Yellowstone Grizzly Bears

The CBD won a significant legal battle to uphold federal protection for the grizzly bears inhabiting the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. This successful lawsuit prevented the delisting of the Yellowstone grizzly bears, which would have opened the door to trophy hunting and jeopardized decades of conservation efforts. The victory underscores the CBD's commitment to Carnivore Conservation and protecting iconic megafauna from political interference.

3. Blocking Federal Oil and Gas Leases on Public Lands

In a major win for Public Lands and Climate Law Institute campaigns, the CBD successfully blocked federal oil and gas leases across more than one million acres of public land. This litigation victory protects vast tracts of habitat from the fossil fuel industry, aligning with the Center’s broader goal of combating the climate crisis by limiting new extraction projects. This action directly addresses the intersection of energy policy and biodiversity loss, a key focus area for the organization.

4. Victory for the Eastern Black Rail

A federal court sided with the Center for Biological Diversity in a significant victory for the Eastern Black Rail, one of America's most imperiled marsh birds. The ruling ensures that the FWS must reconsider its critical habitat designation for the bird. The Eastern Black Rail is threatened by sea-level rise and habitat destruction, making this legal win essential for its long-term survival and highlighting the CBD’s focus on vulnerable coastal species.

5. Securing a Deadline for the Striped Newt

The CBD achieved a legal victory requiring the FWS to make a new decision on the protection status of the Striped Newt by 2030. Although the deadline is years away, this agreement is a crucial step that legally binds the FWS to revisit the status of this amphibian, which has faced repeated delays in receiving the protections it needs under the Endangered Species Act.

6. Exposing Utilities’ Role in Energy Unaffordability and Climate Emergency

In 2024, the CBD released a powerful report detailing how major utility companies are contributing to both energy unaffordability and the climate emergency. The report highlighted how six utility companies collectively increased their profits while driving up energy costs for consumers. This investigative work supports the organization's Energy Justice campaign by exposing corporate practices that harm both human communities and the environment.

7. Halting Sales of Imperiled Wildlife Products

Through direct campaigning, the Center successfully convinced major online retailers to halt the sale of products derived from imperiled species, specifically citing painted bats and totoaba fish. This proactive, non-litigation win demonstrates the CBD's use of creative media and public pressure to disrupt the illegal wildlife trade and protect vulnerable global biodiversity.

Current High-Priority Campaigns and Future Focus

Beyond its legal victories, the Center for Biological Diversity is actively engaged in several high-profile campaigns that represent its current priorities heading into the mid-2020s. These campaigns are crucial for understanding where the organization is directing its resources and influence.

The Fight Against the Appropriations Poison-Pill

The CBD has been vocal about the political attacks on the Endangered Species Act, specifically addressing what it calls "Appropriations Poison-Pills." The 2024 report, "Paving the Road to Extinction," outlined how Congress attempts to weaken the ESA through riders attached to appropriations bills. The Center is actively lobbying and mobilizing to prevent these legislative maneuvers that seek to exempt certain projects or species from environmental review.

Protecting the Olympic Marmot and New Mexico Flower

The organization continues its work to secure protections for individual species facing immediate threats. In May 2024, the CBD petitioned to protect the Olympic Marmots, whose alpine meadows in Olympic National Park are threatened by climate change. Simultaneously, the Center is seeking Endangered Species protection for a New Mexico flower that is directly threatened by the expansion of the fossil fuel industry in the region. These efforts highlight the CBD's commitment to both climate-vulnerable and industry-threatened species.

Key Programmatic Entities and Topical Authority

The CBD divides its work into specialized programs, ensuring deep topical authority across a range of environmental issues. These programs are the engines of its advocacy:

  • Climate Law Institute: Focuses on using legal tools to combat the climate crisis, including challenging fossil fuel infrastructure and extraction.
  • Carnivore Conservation: Dedicated to protecting large predators like wolves, grizzly bears, and jaguars.
  • Environmental Health: Addresses threats from pesticides, toxic chemicals, and pollution to both wildlife and human health.
  • Public Lands: Advocates for the highest and best use of public lands—conservation—against development, logging, and mining.

The Center for Biological Diversity’s recent track record, marked by dozens of legal victories and high-impact reports, clearly establishes it as a central and formidable player in modern wildlife and environmental conservation. Their continued use of the Endangered Species Act as a powerful litigation tool ensures that the protection of biodiversity remains a mandatory priority for federal agencies, even in the face of political and industrial opposition.

7 Shocking Victories and Urgent Campaigns by the Center for Biological Diversity You Need to Know in 2025
center for biological diversity
center for biological diversity

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