Hope as an Operational Strategy
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How Azzedine Downes and IFAW reengineer sustainability for a modern world
When Southern California business leaders talk about sustainability, the conversation usually shifts into the predictable territory of corporate social responsibility (CSR) targets, compliance, and carbon offsets.
And in that, people tend to be bombarded with doom-and-gloom statistics telling us how fast the planet is declining. But if you sit down with Azzedine Downes, president and CEO of the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW), you get a masterclass in global economics, market disruption, and taking advantage of the best of human behavior.
Downes doesn’t view conservation merely as a scientific endeavor; he views it as a complex global enterprise with heart. From leveraging cutting-edge AI to outmaneuver criminal supply chains to leveraging the modern practices shaping biotech and rewilding, the approach feels less like traditional charity and more like compassionate entrepreneurship.
IFAW’s core philosophy offers a refreshing, pragmatic blueprint for leadership. A key guiding principle? You cannot protect a habitat without investing in the people who live there. True sustainability isn’t about managing decline; it’s about aligning incentives to build a future where both business and nature can thrive together, says Downes. Hope isn’t a feeling, he says, but an operational strategy, and that changing human behavior ultimately changes the world.
He emphasizes that conservation is not limited to studying animal populations scientifically; it is about altering how humans interact with the world, from habitat destruction to managing economic drivers. “What makes [IFAW] fundamentally unique is that we combine rescue with conservation,” he said. “We focus on saving individual animals as well as the broader species population to ensure conservation is afforded the highest chance of success.”
But this does not rely solely on science. “There’s a whole business side of the work we do,” he continued. “It is science-based, without question. But there’s also an economic factor to the work that we do, which is ultimately one of impact. By protecting species and securing biodiversity protection, we are ultimately saving ourselves. This includes economic and societal wellbeing, ensuring that a broken environment does not result in a broken people.”
“What I always like to say is that the animals will be fine if we change the way that we as humans interact with them,” said Downes.
Expecting people who are struggling with basic survival to protect wildlife is fundamentally unrealistic – instead, conservation must align with long-term economic development, he says. “I’ve literally met people who come to me and say, ‘I haven’t eaten anything in three or four days,’” Downes said. “Hearing that, how am I going to convince that person to protect elephants?”
“I try to arrive with a mirror, not a plan, to reflect what it is that the people want.”
Downes also notes that while populations who live amongst animals can be strong partners in conservation efforts, politics and policy also are major factors. “It’s rare that policy leads. I think it usually follows ... political decisions are also rarely based exclusively on the science. They often come from pressure,” said Downes.
He also takes aim at the corporate mindset that ties the survival of natural habitats strictly to their potential monetary output. “There is a philosophy that nature must pay for itself. And if it fails to do so, it has no value,” he said. “Much of this thinking comes from the sustainable use movement and it sounds very logical; but basically, it boils down to if they don’t pay, they don’t stay.”
This includes wildlife trafficking and illegal trade. He notes that the poachers operate like any other agile criminal enterprise, shifting focus based on risk and utilizing technology as they can. To combat this, he insists conservationists must adapt using heightened tech as well, for example, exploiting artificial intelligence.
“With the advent of AI, it’s very easy for sellers of both live animals and animal products to change the names of a product. AI allows us to create more detailed searches tied to photos for identification to thwart their efforts.” Downes says that removing profit from criminal enterprises will aid animal conservation. “Criminal networks will always focus on the highest profit at the lowest risk,” he said.
Despite the grim realities of environmental destruction, the illegal animal trade and political apathy, Downes maintains an infectious sense of hope. He insists that business leaders, governments, and individuals all have a role to play in protecting the one world we all have to share, and that with this partnership in place, there is no reason to give up.
“What we learned in the pandemic is that nature will bounce back much faster than people thought if we let it. So, it’s not too late … we have not passed that tipping point.”
This creates actionable forward-thinking positivity rather than gloom, he says. “Many people have accepted that we’re on a downward spiral that cannot be stopped. But I disagree. I just decided personally – I’m not going to be the person who helps manage the demise of the planet.”
For Downes, conservation is not about slowing an inevitable decline; it is about proving that a different future remains possible–one in which both people and the natural world can still thrive.
