All You Need to Know about the Aug. 17-28 Wildlife Trade Conference in Geneva, Switzerland

WCS Indonesia expresses its high appreciation to the Government of East Nusa Tenggara (NTT) for establishing a Wetland Essential Ecosystem Area (KEE) as the habitat for the Rote Island snake-necked turtle (Chelodina mccordi) in Rote Ndao District on June 18, 2019.

A new study says that the tropical forests of Western Equatorial Africa (WEA) – which include significant stands of Intact Forest Landscapes (IFLs) – are increasingly coming under pressure from logging, poaching, and associated disturbances.

The Wildlife Conservation Society applauds the World Customs Organization (WCO) and INTERPOL for its coordinated Operation Thunderball, arresting hundreds of wildlife crime suspects across 109 countries and with more than 1800 seizures of animal and animal parts including big cats, elephant tusks and ivory, rhino horns, birds, reptiles, primates and much more. 

The Government of Bangladesh announced the declaration of the Nijhum Dwip Marine Protected Area (MPA) in the northern Bay of Bengal to safeguard critical spawning grounds for the country’s most valuable fish species and some of the world’s largest populations of endangered dolphins, porpoises, sharks, rays, and marine turtles.

Cutting-edge research carried out by scientists from Wildlife Conservation Society India (WCS-India), in collaboration with the Forest Department, Assam, is paving the way for reliable estimation of Asian elephant populations.

New York, June 27, 2019 – The following statement was released today by Tim Tear, Executive Director of the Wildlife Conservation Society’s Africa Program: “The Wildlife Conservation Society is deeply concerned by the announcement of the Uganda Electric Regulatory Authority (ERA) that it seeks approval for a new hydroelectric plant connected to Murchison Falls. The falls represent the centerpiece of the Murchison Falls National Park—one of Uganda’s most popular tour...

The Municipal Government of Reyes has created a new protected area in northwestern Bolivia that will serve the needs of local communities while safeguarding rare wildlife such as titi monkeys, river dolphins, wattled curassows and other species, said WCS (Wildlife Conservation Society) and Rainforest Trust.

By analyzing records in countries of the Amazon and Orinoco basins—which include Brazil, Venezuela, Colombia, Bolivia, Peru and Ecuador—a paper published today in Oryx—The International Journal of Conservation, categorized 85 past and present initiatives or projects that work to preserve the South American River Turtle, or charapa (Podocnemis expansa), a critically endangered species. These projects are protecting more than 147,000 female turtles across the basin, an unprecedented figure.

— The new Boma-Badingilo Landscape program was launched by the US Government, Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), Government of South Sudan, and Local Community Representatives, on June 18^th, 2019 at the Boma National Park Headquarters, South Sudan.