The Wildlife Conservation Society’s (WCS) Animal Health for the Environment And Development (AHEAD) initiative was created by the Field Veterinary Program in response to the growing recognition of the critical role of animal health in both conservation and development. It was created to foster a sharing of ideas that will lead to concrete and creative initiatives addressing conservation and development challenges at the livestock / wildlife / human health interface.The AHEAD initiative focuses on several themes of critical importance to the future of animal agriculture and wildlife: competition over grazing and water resources, disease mitigation, and other potential sources of conflict related to overall land-use planning and economics. By bringing regional expertise together to compare lessons learned, fostering communications networks that are often lacking even among practitioners in relatively close proximity, and bringing a global perspective to problems that can benefit from the experiences of other regions, WCS’ AHEAD initiative will pay dividends for protected areas as well as buffer zone communities, for core areas as well as conservancies and corridors—the places where tensions and challenges at the livestock / wildlife interface are greatest.