FY 2019 Annual Report • September 1, 2018 - August 31, 2019
PREPARING A GENERATION
What changes defined this decade we have just closed? The
most important, perhaps, was this: The global environmental
crisis, which previously seemed a threat to our future,
presented itself as an immediate and harrowing danger.
Wildfires and cyclones, their intensity and frequency augmented
by climate change, incinerated or submerged millions upon
millions of square kilometers, often in places they had never
wrought such destruction. Meanwhile, scientists began alerting
us that the tragedy of species extinction has now been joined
by a broader problem: the global decline of all wild populations.
It’s not just that rare creatures are disappearing, but that nearly all creatures are becoming rare. Global
ecosystems are unravelling.
And yet, amid these frightening trends, there is at least one hopeful development. We have recently
witnessed the emergence of the world’s youth as a leading force in the fight against climate change.
At EPI, we are deeply encouraged by this movement, for it is just what we’ve been working for. As an
organization, we are devoted to inspiring and empowering young people to work effectively for
conservation and sustainability in their own communities.
We achieve this goal by taking kids into inspiring natural settings, teaching them sound environmental
science, and giving them the opportunity to work with scientists whose research has a direct bearing
on conservation and management. As you will read in this report, their contributions to research are
authentic, and their impacts on conservation are measurable.
It is essential to EPI’s mission that we offer opportunities not only to kids visiting from afar, but also
to those who live nearby. Local students are vital to the future of the endangered ecosystems
around them, and they are prospective leaders in the broader global movement essential to our
common future. Indeed, the most important benefits of our programs are not the specific research
and conservation goals our students pursue, but rather what happens to our students in the process.
They are united and inspired by a special place. They work across cultural boundaries. And finally, at a
time when empirical evidence and sound conclusions are beleaguered by distortions and rhetoric, our
students learn first-hand how scientists establish solid facts. It has never been more important for kids
to know what it means to know something.
If this decade has confronted us with the frightening urgency of our global environmental crisis, it has
also shown us where we might find the will and intelligence to confront that crisis. It resides in young
people. Kids around the world are destined to face ecological problems of unprecedented scale and
complexity. We’d better prepare them for it.
Aaron Hirsh
Chair, Board of Directors
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