WildCRU‘s research is both scientifically original and of practical value. As we strive towards our 2020 Vision, our aim is to continue solving problems for the benefit of wildlife, people and the environment.

The field of wildlife conservation is evolving fast. Biology remains essential,but is no longer sufficient in isolation. Human development and relatedenvironmental and social studies are increasingly part of the equation.WildCRU‘s Vision, and strategic plan to be implemented by 2020, aimsto combine the lessons of the past with foresight for the future.

WildCRU‘s 2020 Vision will build on our foundation of empirical, factfindingfieldwork, both in the UK and overseas, nurturing long-term studiesand catalysing portfolios of linked projects. We will intensify our interdisciplinarity,and continue to pursue our essential trinity of empiricism,scholarship and dissemination, using research as a platform for influencingpolicy and education. Major topics of the past will remain central: rarity,conflict, invasives, and disease, in each case focusing especially on wildfelids. They will be joined by new science priorities:

• Restoring biodiversity in degraded environments – In the UK we will focus in the lowland Upper Thames valley and the Alladale Wilderness Reserve. Overseas we aim to understand and assist habitat regeneration in areas such as the former Mega Rice Project in Borneo and Northeast China.
  
• Safeguarding threatened populations – Increasing human pressure means that already threatened wildlife must be protected if it is to survive to enhance the quality of life of future generations. This will often be about linking habitats and, internationally, trans-frontier collaborations. Innovative private land use will be essential.
  
• Integrating an understanding of carbon dynamics and ecosystem    services – linking biodiversity conservation and energy policy, with an eye to ever changing demographics (climate change being an aggravating factor on the evil quartet of habitat loss, persecution, invasives and disease).
  
• Quantifying the welfare implications of biodiversity conservation –  both in terms of the welfare of wildlife subject to management, and the health and well-being benefits for people of engagement with nature (using, for example, new physiological methods of quantifying stress, developed by WildCRU).
  

Oxford University, and personally its Chancellor and ViceChancellor, are committed to WildCRU‘s 2020 Vision. However,we are entirely dependent on grants from research councilsand government bodies and donations from charitable trusts,companies and individuals.

To learn more about how you might help WildCRU to deliver our 20:20 vision click here or 'support us' in the links above.