WILDLIFE FIRST
SCIENCE DRIVEN CONSERVATION ACTION

Wildlife First is a science driven conservation organization that has been focusing its effort, since 1995, to save endangered species and remnants of wildlife habitats in the Southern Indian State of Karnataka. Wildlife First is registered trust headed by K.M.Chinnappa. Eminent Conservation Scientist Dr Ullas Karanth of the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) is the Scientific Advisor.

Wildlife First is driven by a spirit of Voluntarism. This unique 'zero' brick and mortar model coupled with a team that comprises of only volunteers who also pool in their personal resources ensures that investments on infrastructure are negligible. Funding requirements for its campaigns and basic administrative overheads are met entirely from contributions made by members, individuals and organizations as permissible under the applicable tax law regime in India. As a policy, Wildlife First has neither sought nor received any funding from international donors and government agencies.

OUR CONSERVATION MODEL

Advocating conservation of wildlife in the context of a mega-extinction spasm induced by man requires a distinct approach which has the potential of deflecting livelihood, commercial and developmental pressure away from wildlife reserves without sacrificing the interests of disenfranchised people or the ecological needs of endangered species. Such challenges, that abound in a country with over a billion people and wildlife reserves - a mere 3% of the landscape, demand powerful solutions based on science; understanding of site specific issues and the socio-political milieu.

Wildlife First believes that if intact wildlife assemblages and endangered species are to survive in the face of rising market-driven demand for biological resources, the central task must be to totally sever all linkages between wildlife reserves and the market. Therefore, Wildlife First advocates a strategy that first arrests and then eliminates the flow of resources from wildlife reserves to local, regional and global markets.

Over the years, Wildlife First has opposed all consumptive resource exploitation in wildlife reserves by any agency, be it government or non-government; industry or agriculture - for satisfying any consumer, local or distant. Wildlife First has also attempted to stop arbitrary, unscientific management and prescriptions of "harmonious co-existence" advocated by governmental/non-governmental agencies through delivery of services such as roads, power, telecommunication... to settlements inside wildlife reserves; which fragment wildlife habitats.

The recent drift away from the protectionist policies which marked the government's early wildlife preservation efforts is a matter of concern which Wildlife First has sought to address by forging constructive partnerships with the government. Whenever necessary, Wildlife First has actively intervened by exercising available constitutional and legal mechanisms when adequate response from the system was not forthcoming.

Wildlife First is dedicated to the cause of long term conservation of wildlife and wild landscapes through such effective and passionate advocacy tempered by scientific reasoning.