PRESS RELEASE ----  April 17, 2008 ---- PRESS RELEASE

Projects to Improve the Basis for Habitat Conservation

Washington, DC - The National Council for Science and the Environment (NCSE) today announced the second round of awards in its Wildlife Habitat Policy Research Program (WHPRP), four-year initiative funded by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation.  The Program's mission is to develop and disseminate new information and tools to accelerate the conservation of wildlife habitat in the United States.

With support from WHPRP funds, five investigators from diverse institutions will address a range of critical policy questions relevant to accelerating the conservation of critical wildlife habitats in the U.S.  Much of the new work focuses on state wildlife action plans, federally mandated but locally developed and implemented blueprints for wildlife conservation at the state level.

"We've been fortunate to attract some of the nation's best talent to help work through some of the tough issues surrounding habitat conservation," said Dr. Chris Bernabo, WHPRP's director. "A couple of years from now, we believe the results of this new work will have an important impact not only on state wildlife action plans, but also on improving how we as a society value and conserve wildlife habitat."

Modeled on NCSE's National Commission on Science for Sustainable Forestry, WHPRP brings together diverse stakeholder groups to span the divide between policy and science. A committee of prominent conservation practitioners and scientists oversees the program and identifies the most crucial issues where new work is needed. WHPRP uses an open solicitation and competitive external review process to select proposals.

The five winning investigators in the first round were:

2.A. Wildlife funding/ policy linkages: using State Wildlife Action Plan priorities to direct shape policies and direct expenditures at multiple levels of government
Principal Investigator: Bruce Lauber, Cornell University

2.B. Efficiency of Land Conservation Spending for Priority Habitats
Principal Investigator: Jeff Lerner, Defenders of Wildlife

2.C. Time Sensitivity of Priority Habitats
Principle Investigator: Jessica Wilkinson, Environmental Law Institute (ELI)

2.D. Coastal and floodplain habitat conservation opportunities where people and property are at high risk of flooding and other storm damage
Principal Investigator: David Salvesen, University of North Carolina

2.E. Impacts of Bioenergy Production on Conservation of Wildlife Habitat
Principal Investigator: Janaki Alavalapati, University of Florida

The results from most of these research projects are expected within 12 months. The WHPRP program emphasizes collaboration and communication for disseminating the research findings among government officials, conservation practitioners, and the scientific community.  Descriptions of these five projects and the abstracts of the winning proposals are on the whprp.org website.

"On contentious issues like habitat protection, research is one way to raise the ratio between light and heat," said Dr. Bernabo. "Reasonable people may argue about the best policy, but they can agree about the data, information and tools needed to make good decisions. That's what we're striving for."

Dr. Mark Shaffer, director of the Environment Program at the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, saluted the initial round of grants. "These are really the key questions that need answering if we want to accelerate the conservation of wildlife habitat in this country," he said. "The Foundation is delighted to support the work of such a distinguished group of investigators, and excited about what they will find."

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The National Council for Science and the Environment's ( www.ncseonline.org) mission is to improve the scientific basis for environmental decision-making.  NCSE is a nonprofit and non-advocacy organization.

The mission of the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation ( www.ddcf.org) is to improve the quality of people's lives through grants supporting the performing arts, wildlife conservation, medical research and the prevention of child maltreatment, and through preservation of the cultural and environmental legacy of Doris Duke's properties.