Foundation Funds Environmental Research With Policy Focus

Author: BARBARA SPECTOR, p.21 Many of the best-known scientists in the field of conservation biology receive funding from the Sustainable Society program of the W. Alton Jones Foundation, headquartered in Charlottesville, Va. Such highly respected environmental researchers as Thomas Lovejoy, assistant secretary for external affairs at the Smithsonian Institution; Paul Ehrlich, Bing Professor of Population Studies at Stanford University's biological sciences department; and Peter Raven, director of the Missouri Botanical Garden in St. Louis, are among the philanthropy's grantees. Over the years, more than 50 environmental scientists have been supported through the Sustainable Society program, and during 1991, roughly $7 million in grants for work in environmental protection will be awarded through this program. Yet funding scientific research is not one of the main objectives of the foundation. "Frankly, my goal is not to further science per se, but to use science to help solve the problems we face currently," says Pete Myers, director of the foundation, which has assets totaling some $200 million. To that end, he says, the Jones Foundation supports projects that have "the promise of leading to policy change." Rather than sponsor scientific inquiry that attempts to determine new information, Myers explains, the foundation funds those whose aim is "figuring out how to get people to respond to the knowledge we already have." However, he points out, W. Alton Jones will provide support for basic research when such investigations are necessary to fill in "crucial gaps in knowledge that are essential to furthering policy change. "We're looking for [projects] that are going to change the world." The foundation seeks out opportunities to be on the cutting edge of such endeavors. According to Porter Lowry, II, coordinator of the Madagascar Research and Conservation Program at the Missouri Botanical Garden, W. Alton Jones "was the first United States foundation to support research activities in Madagascar, which has since come to be very important" as one of the world's top conservation priorities. In the mid-1980s, the Jones Foundation committed itself to supporting work in the area, which has 10,000 species of plants (75 percent of which are found nowhere in the world) and an unusually diverse animal population. The country's resources are "rapidly degrading," says Lowry. "There's not much left, and what's left is going fast." Madagascar had been inaccessible to Western scientists in the 1970s, following a revolution in which the French-backed government that ruled the country was deposed. In the 1980s, the political tensions slackened somewhat, and the government became more hospitable to Westerners just as Western researchers were realizing the importance of the region. Jones Foundation officials, Lowry says, sensed that the foundation could "make a difference by getting in on the ground floor" of the research effort in Madagascar. Missouri Botanical Garden investigators are building a computer database of the region's plants and are training Malagasy botanists; Jones Foundation funds provide "core support for key staff members and operating costs that we can't cover from other sources," says Lowry. "It's the catalytical 10 percent [of funds for the project] that keeps the whole machine going." Joan Wilder, director of program development at Ocean Arks International's Center for the Restoration of Waters in Woods Hole, Mass., adds that the general support provided to her group by the Jones Foundation is "always the greatest kind of support to get," not only because so few agencies give money for this purpose, but also because "you can use it where you need it." Ocean Arks is working to develop innovative biological technologies to treat wastewater and is restoring Flax Pond, a highly polluted pond in Harwich, Mass.; the group also runs an educational outreach program and publishes a newspaper. Another great benefit of the Jones Foundation's support, says Lowry, is that it helps to fund the training and work of local scientists in Madagascar and other developing countries. Despite the fact that the foundation's mandate is not to fund basic research, Lowry says, "they do support scientific research if [the money] can have a direct, positive influence on a developing country's ability to do science, and to make that science useful to the country. That's serving a special kind of science that's all too often neglected." Jones Foundation officials, in Lowry's opinion, want to avoid turning into just another organization providing funds "for big, established American institutions to do American science." The foundation was established in 1944 by oilman W. Alton Jones, chairman and chief executive officer of the New York-based Cities Service Co., who lived from 1891 to 1962. Although the foundation once supported a range of activities including arts, education, and urban renewal programs, since the early 1980s it has focused its grantmaking primarily on two major areas: the environment (through the Sustainable Society program) and prevention of nuclear warfare (through the Secure Society program). Says Myers, "The trustees, who include descendants of the founder, became convinced that [these] two issues determine the livability of the planet" and, thus, merit the bulk of the philanthropy's attention. In 1990, the foundation awarded a total of $12.5 million in grants. Of this total, about $6.4 million was allocated to fund environmental work through the 11-year-old Sustainable Society program, with grants ranging from $6,000 to $530,000. Annually, says Myers, the foundation receives about 200 to 300 proposals for Sustainable Society grants, of which about 50 to 80 are funded. At present, the Sustainable Society effort does not have a program director; a search has been under way for a year. "I'm looking," Myers says, "for a combination of a science background, including social science; experience in policymaking; and an ability to think strategically about how to put together programs, plus experience with international work on environmental policy." The foundation has a staff of 13 people who review proposals and make recommendations for funding to the board of trustees. Three of these staffers have Ph.D.'s, including Myers. A zoologist, Myers previously was a senior vice president at the National Audubon Society and associate curator at the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia. He says his scientific training "gives me insight into what it is people want to accomplish," which he then can "translate into terms the foundation can interpret." In terms of "relating objectives and findings into terms policymakers can understand," Myers says, "scientists are often their own worst enemy. We're looking for ways to assist that process." The 20-year-old W. Alton Jones Cell Science Center, a research institution located in Lake Placid, N.Y., currently does not receive funding from the foundation. The intent of the $17.5 million grant the Jones Foundation gave the center in 1982 was "to lead the Cell Science Center to independence," says Myers. "The trustees in the early '80s found that its work was distinct from the main focus of the foundation, and for that reason embarked on a program to make the Cell Science Center independent." Ecologist George Woodwell, director of the Woods Hole Research Center in Woods Hole, Mass., says he believes the foundation's priorities are on target. "They've supported the most progressive and most able people and programs around [the United States]," he says. The Woods Hole Research Center, which was established in 1985 and is not connected with the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, conducts scientific research and policy analysis on global environmental problems, with a special emphasis on biotic resources. One Woods Hole Research Center program supported by the foundation is the Global Forest Inventory Project, which measures forest areas using satellite imagery, assessing changes caused by deforestation, harvest, climate changes, and fires. In supporting this effort, the Jones Foundation is filling a void, says Woodwell: "The federal government has not lived up to its promise in awarding grants to use satellite imagery," although the government readily funds the development of satellite technology. "The Jones Foundation has recognized that need." As a consequence of its leadership in these and other areas, the foundation has become well respected in the environmental research community. "It's so well known you could hardly avoid it," says Roger Pasquier, director of foundations at the New York-based Environmental Defense Fund. "Other foundations always ask who else is funding you. When they see the Jones Foundation is among your funders, that's a very valuable influence." The Smithsonian's Lovejoy says it's no accident that the foundation has teamed up with the field's movers and shakers. The foundation's board and staff, he says, are "very bright and aggressive; they're looking for maximum leverage and maximum effectiveness." Adds Lovejoy: "I'm really impressed by the energy and acuity of their activities; they go out and they find [innovative projects to support] in a way that other foundations don't." Says the Missouri Botanical Garden's Lowry: "Compared to the [John D. and Catherine T.] MacArthur Foundation, the amount of money [given in Jones Foundation grants] isn't very large at all. But if they can get in at the cutting edge, they can make just as much of a difference as the MacArthur Foundation." For more information, contact the W. Alton Jones Foundation, 232 E. High St., Charlottesville, Va. 22901-5178; (804) 295-2134.

Foundation Funds Environmental Research With Policy Focus

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