Wild Animal Welfare Program: Executing on near-term interventions
- commitment
- 5 hrs/week
- flexibility
- No mentee proposal
The project
This program aims to identify, test, and scale the most promising near-term interventions in wild animal welfare (WAW).
There are an estimated ~1 quadrillion vertebrates living in the wild (roughly 99.99% of all sentient beings) yet total annual funding for wild animal welfare is currently only ~$10M USD. Combined with the fact that the cause area is unintuitive for most people to engage with, WAW is arguably the area where one can have the greatest positive impact today.
Success would generate two complementary outcomes:
- Direct impact: Significant, measurable improvements to wild animal wellbeing
- Field-building effects: New knowledge generation, along with increased funding and talent flowing into this highly neglected space
Examples of promising near-term intervention types include:
- Rodent fertility control
- Humane pesticides
- Disease eradication
- Invasive species eradication (where net effects on wellbeing are positive)
The mentee's role
Examples of tasks that mentees can support include:
- Intervention list: Helping establishing and reviewing a long list of possible interventions
- Intervention planning: Supporting the development of the initial selected interventions to explore
- Getting more people involved: E.g. reaching out to potential advisors, raising awareness by creating an EA Forum post etc.
- Expert input: Talking with experts relevant for specific interventions
- Partners: Identifying and reaching out to potential partners
- Intervention research: Researching the intervention a level more in depth
Who I'm looking for
Strong generalists: Skilled at quickly learning new topics, with strong problem-solving skills and value aligned.
Specialists: Mentees with relevant topic-specific experience, e.g., biologists, researchers, advocates.
Support offered
- Substantial ownership from day one
- Hands-on guidance throughout
- Ongoing feedback and the opportunity to get career capital in a high-impact cause area
- format
- Product & entrepreneurship
- topic
- Wild animal welfare · Neglected animal groups
Mattias Brodsgaard
Ex-management consultant
Former management consultant (~10 years) specializing in procurement and supply chain, now working more directly in the effective altruism space. Based in Denmark, I help lead the animal welfare fundraising pool at Giv Effektivt, the Danish effective giving initiative. I'm also actively working to found a wild animal welfare project, aiming to identify cost-effective interventions in an area with enormous scope for impact that remains hugely neglected.