Why It Matters

The world’s wildlife faces a grim future. The fabric of life is unraveling. Habitats are being destroyed and species are being driven towards extinction:

• Vertebrate populations have declined worldwide by more than two-thirds on average since 1970.
• North America has lost nearly three billion birds over the same period.
• Nearly one-fifth of animal species in the U.S. are currently threatened with extinction.

Bold action is needed to reverse these trends.

In the U.S., the first line of defense against this “biological annihilation” is state governments, not the federal government.

And yet…the states are missing in action. Why?

Because state wildlife management has been hijacked by a minority of people whose views are out of step with science and public attitudes towards wildlife.

Rather than evolving to be more responsive to current societal and ecological needs, state wildlife management has become an entrenched system in which the dominant ethos is one of control and exploitation.

This is a system that is fundamentally undemocratic and unjust.