CEAP provides academic leadership for research and policy-making about critical social issues at the intersection of environmental and animal protection.
About
Our research has three distinguishing characteristics:
- Our research is both rigorous and accessible, maintaining the highest scholarly standards while remaining useful for a wide audience
- Our research builds bridges within academia, examining environmental and animal protection through the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences
- Our research builds bridges beyond academia, establishing connections with researchers and policymakers in both the public and the private sectors
Our work benefits enormously from our integration into the broader Environmental Studies and Animal Studies communities at NYU. We work closely with an outstanding group of faculty and graduate students in the Department of Environmental Studies as well as with collaborators throughout the university, for instance in the School of Law and the School of Medicine. We also share an administrative team with the NYU Center for Mind, Ethics, and Policy (located in the same department), increasing capacity and efficiency for both centers.
RESEARCH
The NYU Center for Environmental and Animal Protection examines important issues at the intersection of environmental protection and animal protection. How does humanity interact with animals and the environment, and how can we improve these interactions at scale? Like the NYU Department of Environmental Studies, CEAP takes special interest in multidisciplinary, problem-oriented research related to food and land use systems, ecological systems, and systems of governance, given the importance and interconnectedness of these topics.
Navigating Trade-Offs Between Climate Change Mitigation and Biodiversity Conservation
Shermin de Silva, Natalie Jacewicz, Karen Kovaka, Kristy Ferraro, Craig Callendar, Dale Jamieson, Asseem Prakash
Biodiversity (2025)
Synergies between mitigating climate change and conserving biodiversity are often emphasized in public discourse and policy, as both goals are seen as mutually reinforcing. However, there can be trade-offs between these aims, particularly when actions benefiting one may inadvertently harm the other. Where such trade-offs are evident, cost-benefit analysis (CBA) has emerged as a dominant approach to resolving them. While CBA can be useful, it also has limitations, especially in addressing ethical and ecological complexities. We highlight these limitations and propose that creating environmental ethics committees using principles of collaborative governance would provide a practical, transparent mechanism for grappling with trade-offs at various levels.
Read (open access)
Managing for Climate and Production Goals on Crop-Lands
Shelby C. McClelland, Deborah Bossio, Doria R. Gordon, Johannes Lehmann, Matthew N. Hayek, Stephen M. Ogle, Jonathan Sanderman, Stephen A. Wood, Yi Yang & Dominic Woolf
Nature Climate Change (5/19/2025)
The assumption that cropland natural climate solutions (NCS) offer dual benefits for climate change mitigation and crop production remains largely untested. In this study, we model greenhouse gas emissions and crop yields from cropland NCS through the end of the century to evaluate their effectiveness. Our results show that favorable (win–win) outcomes were the exception rather than the norm. When avoiding crop losses, we observe only modest greenhouse gas mitigation, 4.4 Pg CO₂ equivalent, 95% confidence interval (4.2, 4.6) by 2050. These findings suggest that cropland soil will represent only a small fraction of overall food system decarbonization efforts moving forward.
Read (open access)
Why Aquatic Animals Matter for Food Justice
Chiawen Chang, Jeff Sebo
Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy (5/2/2025)
Two recent books, Healthy Eating Policy and Political Philosophy and Food, Justice, and Animals, offer promising frameworks for food justice. However, we argue that these frameworks need to be expanded to account for aquatic animals, given their sentience, diversity, and vulnerability. We examine the global health, environmental, and socio-economic impacts of aquaculture and industrial fishing, and consider whether and how aquatic animals can count as stakeholders and participants in public reason frameworks. We also assess the rights aquatic animals might hold under food justice theories. Without settling every question, we suggest that properly protecting aquatic animals will require rethinking aquatic animal farming and fishing.
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Aristolochia Zhuhaiensis, a Self-Supporting New Species of Aristolochiaceae from Guangdong, China and Notes on Aristolochia Thwaitesii
Yi-Fan Wang, Zi-Rui Guo, Sven Landrein, Joyce G. Onyenedum, Shuai Liao
PhytoKeys (3/21/2025)
This article introduces Aristolochia pulvinata, a newly discovered species in the Jinguangsi Nature Reserve of Yunnan Province, China, notable for its thickened perianth structure that sets it apart from relatives. Field observations reveal that A. pulvinata coexists with A. ovatifolia yet shows clear morphological distinctions, with no evidence of hybridization. Because this species is currently known from just one region, the authors classify it as Critically Endangered under IUCN criteria. This finding is the first output of a CEAP-funded project aimed at clarifying Aristolochia taxonomy, an urgent task given widespread habitat loss, illegal trade, and the genus’s critical but understudied importance for butterfly protection and conservation.
Read (open access)
From Pandas to Corals: Assessing the Animal Welfare Impacts of Assisted Reproduction Technologies
Toni Sims, Becca Franks, Erin Ryan, Jeff Sebo
Journal of Applied Animal Ethics Research (2/11/2025)
While assisted reproduction holds potential benefits for wild animals, it also raises significant ethical concerns that warrant careful consideration. In this paper, we examine the welfare implications of assisted reproduction for individual wild animals, using corals and pandas as case studies to illustrate key points. Many (if not all) wild animals are welfare subjects who deserve moral consideration as individuals, not merely as members of populations or species. We emphasize that human interventions in wild animals’ lives, even when motivated by conservation goals or good intentions, can often lead to unintended, unpredictable, and potentially undermining consequences that negatively impact animal welfare.
Read (open access)
Towards a Global Ban on Industrial Animal Agriculture by 2050: Legal Basis, Precedents, and Instruments
Jeff Sebo, Emma Dietz, Toni Sims
Lewis & Clark Law School Environmental Law (2/6/2025)
Industrial animal agriculture is central to the global economy. However, it also causes significant and widespread harm to human health, animal welfare, and the environment, including contributing heavily to greenhouse gas emissions, zoonotic disease risk, and biodiversity loss. The international community has a history of addressing transboundary harms through coordinated regulations, such as efforts to protect the ozone layer, combat tobacco use, and prevent forced labor and torture. This paper examines relevant international legal precedents to argue that a global ban on industrial animal agriculture is both feasible and necessary for meeting shared environmental, health, and social goals.
Read (open access)
MEDIA
Below we list select op-eds, briefs, talks, panels, interviews, and coverage about environmental protection and animal protection from CEAP researchers and affiliates since 2018.
“Perspectives: The Many Faces of Science in the Animal Protection Movement”
Dale Jamieson
The Brooks Institute for Animal Rights and Policy (2025)
Read
Letter of Testimony in Support of Hawai’i Octopus Farming Ban
Jeff Sebo, Becca Franks, Adalene Minelli, Katrina Wyman, and Mia MacDonald
Submitted to Hawai’i State Legislature (2025)
Read House Testimony | Read Senate Testimony
“Lie-Flat Environmentalism in a Burning World”
Yifei Li
CSCC Earth Day Lecture (2025)
Read
“The Moral Circle UK Launch”
Jeff Sebo
Queen Mary University London School of Law
View
“Author Jeff Sebo, One Earth Collective, Basandija Coalition”
A Rude Awakening (2025)
Interview with Jeff Sebo about The Moral Circle
Listen
“Why Scientists are Horrified by the World’s First Octopus Farm”
Veg Out (2025)
Article about octopus farming that cites “The Case Against Octopus Farming”
Read
Opportunities
CEAP conducts, supports, and disseminates high-quality research about important issues at the intersection of environmental and animal protection. We have three distinguishing features: (1) a focus on highly credible, evidence-based research that will provide usable knowledge and policy recommendations to decision-makers and advocacy groups; (2) an emphasis on the integration of environmental and animal protection issues; and (3) an emphasis on fostering collaboration between scholars and private-sector changemakers around the world.
CEAP will consider proposals from faculty, graduate students, and independent researchers that further its mission. CEAP can provide grants to individuals or to institutions, but does not pay indirect costs or institutional overhead.