As described in the Wilburforce Foundation’s
strategic framework, one of Wilburforce’s core
values is that our work be science-driven; that is, informed and guided by the most recent and best
available science. The strategic framework itself was informed by an intensive science-based priority
review process that allowed Wilburforce staff to identify focal areas and articulate landscape-level goals
for the coming decades.
The Wilburforce Conservation Science Program (CSP) was created to inform and integrate our science grantmaking
in the name of our vision:
By 2020, a network of protected core reserves, corridors and buffer zones across Western North America will
support ecologically effective landscapes and viable wildlife populations.
The CSP is intended to enhance the ability of the regional programs and their grantees to effectively adopt
and share scientific information, methods, tools, and solutions while keeping an eye to important opportunities
that cut across all Wilburforce funding regions.
Wilburforce takes the following approach to its conservation science work:
We believe that land use policies and practices in our funding region should reflect careful consideration
of the balance of scientific opinion. To this end, the CSP endeavors to improve scientific information,
communications, and community and bring these resources to bear on the many conservation challenges we face.
The CSP will require significant policy or programmatic tie-ins for investment. We will not fund science for
its own sake – but rather address questions that have direct relevance to policy or potential conservation
solutions. While in some cases it may be strategic to learn more about the life history or movements of focal
species, the question will be asked, “how does this bring us closer to a positive solution for this landscape?”
The CSP prioritizes the synthesis and analysis of existing data. Although there are scenarios that call for
original research and new data, the CSP endeavors to, when possible, make effective and novel use of the
immense body of existing science that might shed light on conservation solutions.
The CSP defines conservation science beyond the biological or ecological realms to also include the social
sciences, such as economics, sociology, and other less traditional conservation disciplines that deal with
the human element and its effect on the landscape.
The types of activities funded by the Wilburforce CSP include the following:
Communicating science: Efforts to make scientific information and concerns more salient to the general
public and policy makers.
Data-sharing: Technical tools that will enable our grantees and fellow funders to more easily collaborate
and share data pertaining to the many issues we face in the North American West
Climate change adaptation strategies: Innovative work that sheds light on climate change scenarios and
the most resilient means for adapting to them in our funding region. This is the work that will help funders,
grantees, and policy-makers develop conservation strategies in the face of dramatic changes across the landscape.
Connectivity: Efforts to shed light on the movement patterns and habitat needs of focal species in the west and efforts to investigate means for mitigating the negative consequences that can arise when wildlife and human habitats overlap. This includes such work as conservation area designs, studies of focal species abundance, movement, and habitat needs, and socio-economic studies of human impacts.
We are supporting the following organizations for work in this area. When you click on an organization
name you will see a list of all grants made to that organization, which may include projects funded
in other program areas.
