Optimization of Ethical Self-Assessment for Wildlife Conservation Procedures (ETHAS): Digitalization for Global Dissemination

Dear Participant,
We invite you to take part in the study “Optimization of Ethical Self-Assessment for Wildlife Conservation Procedures (ETHAS): Digitalization for Global Dissemination”. This study is carried out by the Department of Compared Biomedicine and Food Science, University of Padua, under the supervision of Prof. Barbara de Mori. Originally developed in the Biorescue project, ETHAS integrates ethical principles, legal frameworks, and social values. This study aims to digitize ETHAS into a web-based platform to simplify its use and promote global adoption. To evaluate the impact of this digitalization, the project will conduct a survey targeting both new and experienced users, with the goal of enhancing ethical awareness, improving usability, and informing future development of ethical tools in wildlife research.

What is ETHAS?

Ethical Self-Assessment (ETHAS) is a structured tool designed to support researchers in systematically reflecting on the ethical aspects of their wildlife research. It integrates ethical principles (including the 3Rs: Replace, Reduce, Refine), legal requirements, and societal values to help ensure responsible decision-making. The goal is to strengthen researchers’ ethical awareness, improve animal welfare, enhance scientific quality, and foster public trust. Importantly, ETHAS is intended to complement — not replace — formal authorization processes by promoting continuous ethical reflection throughout the research process.

What is self-assessment?

Self-assessment in the ethical context is a structured, researcher-led process in which individuals or teams critically reflect on the ethical aspects of their work. Within the ETHAS framework, it involves systematically evaluating how research aligns with key requirements from different ethical dimensions — animal ethics, environmental ethics, research ethics, and social ethics — as well as legal requirements and standards of good scientific practice, before, during, and after the research. The process fosters continuous ethical awareness and supports accountability, transparency, and sound decision-making. It complements external evaluations, such as ethics committee reviews, by encouraging researchers to take active responsibility for the ethical quality of their work throughout the research process.

Informed consent

You can read the Informed Consent and Data Protection file at the following link. Please read the document carefully before proceeding.

Informed Consent Confirmation

I confirm that I have read and understood the purpose of the study, the data privacy terms, and that I voluntarily consent to participate. To proceed with the compilation of the questionnaire, consenting is mandatory.

Questionnaire

DEMOGRAPHICS

ETHICAL ASSESSMENT IN CONSERVATION

The ETthical self-ASsessment tool (ETHAS) (www.Ethas.org)

ETHAS is an example of an ethical self-assessment framework designed to support decision- making in wildlife conservation. The framework was initially developed by the Ethics Lab for Veterinary Sciences, Conservation and Animal Welfare at the University of Padova and Leibniz IZW Institute, within the BioRescue-project, specifically for the ethical assessment of Assisted Reproduction Techniques implementation in wildlife. The framework is now being expanded to cover a broader range of wildlife conservation, research and management practices.

8)–11) The following four ethical value dimensions are widely recognized in the literature as important for wildlife conservation. Please rate how important you consider each of these dimensions for inclusion in a future ethical self-assessment tool to help evaluate conservation projects.
The following questions (12–18) are intended for respondents who are already familiar with ETHAS or have used the tool in their work. If you do not have prior knowledge or experience with ETHAS, you may skip this section.

14) Please rank the following data management features in order of importance for an ethical self-assessment tool (from 1 = most important to 4 = least important)

Please do not assign the same number to more than one item.

Please, help us to distribute this study by indicating other colleagues who would support our research. Do not forget to press the Submit button at the bottom of this survey!

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