The Center for Biological Diversity is a nonprofit membership organization known for its work protecting endangered species through legal action, scientific petitions, creative media and grassroots activism.

[1] The center is based in Tucson, Arizona, with its headquarters in the historic Owls club building,[2] and has offices and staff in New Mexico, Nevada, California, Oregon, Illinois, Minnesota, Alaska, Vermont, Florida and Washington, D.C.

Kieran Suckling, Peter Galvin, and Todd Schulke founded the organization in response to what they perceived as a failure on the part of the United States Forest Service to protect imperiled species from logging, grazing, and mining.

As surveyors in New Mexico, the three men discovered "a rare Mexican spotted owl nest in an old-growth tree", but their discovery was ignored and the Forest Service continued with plans to lease the land to timber companies; Suckling, Galvin, and Schulke believed that it was within the Forest Service's mission to save sensitive species like the Mexican spotted owl from harm, and that the government had not performed its duty in deference to corporate interests.

The Center employs a group of paid and pro bono attorneys to use litigation to effect change, and claims a 93 percent success rate for their lawsuits.

What had allegedly been presented by CBD as barren images caused by overgrazing were shown to be campsite areas used by hunters, and a parking lot used for an annual festival.

[10] On 13 June 2007, the Center spoke out against a George W. Bush administration proposal to reduce the protected area for the spotted owl in the United States Pacific Northwest.

According to Noah Greenwald, the group's representative in the Northwest, the proposed habitat cut is "typical of an administration that is looking to reduce protections for endangered species at every turn."

Greenwald said that the rollback is part of a series of "sweetheart deals," in which the administration settles an environmental lawsuit out of court and, "at the industry's wishes, reduces the critical habitat."

According to the center, the move conforms to a broad trend that includes at least 25 earlier Bush administration decisions on habitat protections for endangered species.

[11][needs update] On 16 December 2008, the center announced intent to sue the United States government for introducing "regulations ... that would eviscerate our nation's most successful wildlife law by exempting thousands of federal activities, including those that generate greenhouse gases, from review under the Endangered Species Act."

Interior Department Secretary Dirk Kempthorne and President George W. Bush, was filed in the Northern District of California by the center, Greenpeace and Defenders of Wildlife.