I notice you’ve made a huge grant to Wild Animal Initiative. That’s great!
With work on this subject, I’m curious how you would prioritize between research to inform future interventions, advocacy to raise concern about the subject, and current interventions to improve wild animal welfare?
I may not have much to add, because I know you’ve thought a ton about this and I’m obviously not on the AWF panel. But for what it’s worth, here’s how I would rate those categories, in descending order of expected impact:
Research to inform future interventions
Advocacy to raise concern about the subject
Current interventions to improve wild animal welfare
Most of all, I think we should be measuring projects by how they contribute to the formation of a movement around wild animal welfare. That points in a slightly different direction than if we just think about the direct impact of a particular project. For example:
Research: Developing methods or concepts might catalyze further research better than simply developing technologies or species-specific knowledge.
Advocacy: Appealing to conservation organizations (“grasstops”) might build coalitions quicker than appealing to the general public (“grassroots”).
Current interventions: Conceptually simple interventions on somewhat likable species (e.g., rat contraception) might attract more resources to the cause than counterintuitive interventions on alien species (e.g., humane insecticides), even if the latter would have more impact in the short term.
Congrats on being the new fund chair, Kieran!
I notice you’ve made a huge grant to Wild Animal Initiative. That’s great!
With work on this subject, I’m curious how you would prioritize between research to inform future interventions, advocacy to raise concern about the subject, and current interventions to improve wild animal welfare?
Thanks, Max! :)
There certainly are. Here’s what we listed in our RFP:
We’d be interested in hearing from you if:
You want to tackle some “big-picture” question regarding wild animal welfare
You would like to launch a new non-profit venture, or you would like to trial something new, in the wild animal welfare space
You’re a scientist and want to pursue field-building activities, such as organizing conferences, trainings, courses, or events
You’re a scientist that could add welfare metrics to your current or planned research
You’d like to do some research regarding wild animal welfare field-building opportunities
You’d like to scope some opportunities for initial policy work on wild animal welfare
You’d like to explore the potential of non-controversial means to improve the lives of any relatively large-scale population of wild animals
You’re interested in exploring what for-profit business ideas might exist in the wild animal welfare space
We would love to hear from you regarding any of the above! If in doubt, please err on the side of reaching out.
Hi Max!
I may not have much to add, because I know you’ve thought a ton about this and I’m obviously not on the AWF panel. But for what it’s worth, here’s how I would rate those categories, in descending order of expected impact:
Research to inform future interventions
Advocacy to raise concern about the subject
Current interventions to improve wild animal welfare
Most of all, I think we should be measuring projects by how they contribute to the formation of a movement around wild animal welfare. That points in a slightly different direction than if we just think about the direct impact of a particular project. For example:
Research: Developing methods or concepts might catalyze further research better than simply developing technologies or species-specific knowledge.
Advocacy: Appealing to conservation organizations (“grasstops”) might build coalitions quicker than appealing to the general public (“grassroots”).
Current interventions: Conceptually simple interventions on somewhat likable species (e.g., rat contraception) might attract more resources to the cause than counterintuitive interventions on alien species (e.g., humane insecticides), even if the latter would have more impact in the short term.
Feel free to reach out if you want to bounce around ideas! cameronms@wildanimalinitiative.org