Wild Animal Welfare and Ecosystem Restoration

Ecosystem restoration can improve welfare for wild animal populations through increased food availability, habitat quality, and reduced human conflict. Welfare considerations should inform restoration design.

Key Facts

Rewilding with keystone species including wolves, beavers, and lynx creates trophic cascade welfare benefits
Restored riparian habitats improve water quality and food availability for freshwater fish welfare
Beaver reintroduction creates wetland habitat beneficial for multiple species welfare at landscape scale
Invasive species removal restores native habitat benefiting the welfare of native species populations
Ecosystem restoration welfare benefits accumulate over decades as habitats mature and complexity increases

Welfare Considerations

Ecosystem restoration represents one of the highest-leverage interventions for wild animal welfare at scale. Restoring trophic cascades, wetlands, and native habitat complexity benefits the welfare of entire communities of wild animals simultaneously. The welfare benefits of good ecosystems - improved nutrition, reduced parasitism, better disease resistance - represent welfare improvements impossible to achieve through individual animal interventions.

What You Can Do

Support rewilding and ecosystem restoration organizations working at landscape scale
Advocate for government funding of ecosystem restoration programs including keystone species reintroduction
Learn about the welfare benefits of ecosystem restoration for wild animal populations
Reduce consumption of agricultural products associated with habitat destruction to support ecosystem health