Biodiversity Interview with Christian Freitag

Interview with Christian Freitag, Executive Director of Conservation Law Center

After graduating from Northwestern University, Christian pursued a Juris Doctor degree at Indiana University’s Maurer School of Law and later earned a PhD from IU’s School of Public and Environmental Affairs. His unwavering dedication to environmental causes has defined his career. Christian’s unique blend of expertise in land conservation, environmental law, and entrepreneurialism has made him an exceptionally effective leader, contributing to significant growth for CLC during his tenure.

Question: I know you have a background in land protection. Could you please share your insights on how the preservation of land, habitat, and species intersect?

Freitag: I’m a systems guy. The knee bone’s connected to the thigh bone, as they say. You care about critters? Then save the places they need to live and eat and mate. You worry about how the critters will adapt to climate change? Connect the protected landscapes so they can move. And for heaven’s sake, take care of the water. Every life depends on it. But most importantly, understand that human beings are not separate from nature but instead a participant. As Jane Goodall says, you cannot get through a single day without having an impact on the world around you, so decide what kind of impact that will be. What will your grandchildren say about your impact?

It’s such an exciting time to be an environmentalist. It would be easy to get bogged down in Chicken Little thinking that the sky is falling. We’re certainly fed enough bad news about the environment that there’s reason to feel pretty depressed. But I try to look at it a different way. Look how far we’ve come as a movement in a relatively short period of time. Over the course of just two generations, the environment has gone from something most people completely took for granted to something most people think about regularly. We shouldn’t lose sight of all the progress we’ve made. And in the hands of the next generation? I think we’ll all be amazed.

Nothing is inevitable though. It’s not inevitable that we’re doomed, but it’s also not inevitable that we’ll do better. It’s up to us.

Question: In the face of climate change and habitat loss, what innovative strategies or technologies do you believe hold the most promise for conserving biodiversity?

Freitag: I’m regularly astounded at our species’ capacity for innovation and creative problem solving. But I don’t think we can smartify our way out of the environmental challenges we face, even as entrepreneurial as we are. My greatest hope isn’t any form of technology at all. If we’re going to rediscover a balanced world, or perhaps repair and create one, it won’t come through gizmos or fancy new toys. If we don’t get people to realize they’re part of nature and not separate from it, we don’t have a chance. Our greatest hope is a fundamental change of thought about our role on the planet, not as conquerors but instead as community members. Aldo Leopold wrote about this in the 1940s. He’s as right now as he was then. Our greatest hope is our capacity for connection.

Question: Biodiversity is a complex and interconnected concept. Can you explain why biodiversity is essential and its impact on ecosystems?

Freitag: Biology is incredibly complex, of course, but I don’t find the concept of biodiversity particularly complex. Leopold said the first rule of intelligent tinkering is to keep all the pieces. Only in the last decade have we learned that trees communicate through underground networks of fungi and chemicals. Can you imagine? That seems like fantasy stuff to old grumps like me. It seems to me there are two big fundamental lessons to wrap your mind around the basic concept of biodiversity. First, there are no extra parts in nature. Everything matters whether a little or a lot. Second, all the parts are connected, even if we don’t know how yet.

Question: What role do government policies and regulations play in biodiversity and species conservation, and how can they be improved or better enforced?

Freitag: I think the government has a huge role to play in a healthy environment. It always has. Emissions limits make our air cleaner. Septic inspections can make our water cleaner. Wetlands regulations provide habitat, but also help with drought and flood. Tax incentives can help motivate better land management. But if we’re waiting on the government to save us, heaven help us. Successful social movements always work from the bottom up. The government will reflect the people ultimately. We have to fix the way humans relate to nature first and foremost, and then the policies will come. One thing I always stress is that conservation shouldn’t have political baggage. It’s not an R or D thing. Everyone wants clean air for their children to breathe, and clean water for their family to drink, whether they call themselves environmentalists or not. I’m not talking about disingenuous money grubbers, mind you, but serious honest people. I buck the notion that the environment is the bailiwick of one party or another. We all live it, for better or worse, so the only way to win in the environment is a big tent approach.

Question: I understand you’re a birder, what makes migratory birds so special?

Freitag: They almost defy comprehension to me. Imagine a three-inch bright yellow warbler that goes between northern Canada and South America twice a year. Imagine the arctic tern going 22,000 miles! I’ve been so thrilled to travel to Costa Rica in recent years for Conservation Law Center projects, and to see our own ruby-throated hummingbirds zipping around the Pacific coast in February. They feel like friends, like they were at my last summer barbecue in Bloomington. Migratory birds are also harbingers of the changing seasons for me, which is one of my favorite parts of living in the Midwest. To see the neotropical songbirds arrive in the spring with their full colors on display, and to hear the sandhill cranes in the sky in the fall. Just glorious. The sights they must see on their travels, the strength and resilience they need, it blows my mind. There is wildness in them that attracts me.