INFORMATION LITERACY EVALUATING INFORMATION

Everyone has limited time and money, and choosing how to invest that time and money to support biodiversity issues can be complex. Should you fund an organization that protects individual species or ecosystems? How much money is reasonable to spend on administration and fundraising? What conservation focus do you prefer?

Evaluate the following websites and work with the information:

Question 13.21

Visit the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) website (www.worldwildlife.org) and the Nature Conservancy website (www.nature.org). For each, answer the following questions:

  • What is the mission of the organization?

  • Is the website up-to-date? Does it appear to be accurate? Reliable? Explain.

  • Does the organization use a single-species conservation approach, an ecosystem approach, or both? Support your answer.

  • What does the organization claim about the percentage of its operating budget it spends on programs versus on other costs? What evidence does it provide to support this claim? Is the evidence sufficient?

  • How long has the organization been operating? What are some of the successes it claims?

A very small amount (about 1%) are extinct in the wild, about 17% are critically endangered, about 22% are endangered, 22% are vulnerable, 22% are near threatened, 1% are in the “data deficient” category, and 15% are of “least concern.”

Question 13.22

Go to Charity Navigator (www.charitynavigator.org).

  • Search for World Wildlife Fund. Does the information on the percentage of the operating budget spent on programs, fundraising, and administration match the claims of the WWF website? If there is a discrepancy, why might that be? Which source would you trust, and why?

  • Search for Nature Conservancy. How does the budget information on the Charity Navigator site compare to that on the Nature Conservancy site?

  • How does the Nature Conservancy compare to WWF in terms of money spent on programs versus on fundraising and administration? Be specific.

  • Would these differences lead you to choose to donate to one organization over the other? Why or why not? What other information would you use to make a decision about which organization to support?

The proportion of threatened birds (~5%) is much lower than that of amphibians (~20%).

Find an additional case study online at http://www.macmillanhighered.com/launchpad/saes2e