Afghanistan has announced some rare good news: the establishment of its first national park. The park, known as Band-e-Amir, will protect one of the country’s best-known natural areas.

USAID funding of Wildlife Conservation Society research helped drive park’s creation Band-e-Amir Park will safeguard spectacular system of natural lakes KABUL, AFGHANISTAN, April 22, 2009 – The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) applauded Afghanistan’s National Environment Protection Agency (NEPA), which announced today the establishment of the country’s first internationally recognized national park. USAID provided key funding ...

Nearly 6,000 Irrawaddy dolphins are alive and swimming in Bangladesh, according to new WCS research. Prior to this study, the largest known populations of Irrawaddy dolphins numbered in the low hundreds or less.

Nearly 6,000 Irrawaddy dolphins are alive and swimming in Bangladesh NEW YORK (April 1, 2009) -- The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) announced today the discovery of a huge population of rare dolphins in South Asia—but warns that the population is threatened by climate change and fishing nets. Using rigorous scientific techniques, WCS researchers estimate that nearly 6,000 Irrawaddy dolphins, which are related to orcas or killer whales, were found living in freshwater regions of Bangladesh’...

NEW YORK (March 18, 2009)—After nearly dying from eating a poisoned animal carcass, a critically endangered white-rumped vulture was nursed back to health by wildlife veterinarians and conservationists from the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and Angkor Centre for Conservation of Biodiversity (ACCB) and returned to the skies of Cambodia. The story is a small victory in a region where vultures of several species in Asia have become endangered due to a variety of causes. “Vulture ...

Agreement marks unique partnership among the World Bank, Global Environment Facility, and the Conservation Community to conserve big cats throughout their range NEW YORK (February 26, 2009) The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), together with the World Bank and Global Environment Facility (GEF), announced today a commitment of $2.8 million toward tiger conservation across its range. WCS will lead a new project, Tiger Futures, in partnership with other conservation organizations with long-term ...

Photographic confirmation of fleet-footed big cats a first for that country NEW YORK (February 23, 2009)—A Wildlife Conservation Society-supported survey of the Sahara has captured the first camera-trap photographs of the critically endangered Saharan cheetah in Algeria. The survey was conducted by researchers from the Zoological Society of London (ZSL), the Office du Parc National de l’Ahaggar (OPNA), and the Université de Béjaïa, with support from WCS and Panthera. The photographs were taken a...

Park safeguards western lowland gorillas, chimps, elephants, and other wildlife NEW YORK (February 18, 2009)—Gorilla population surveys, conducted by the Wildlife Conservation Society, have helped the government of Cameroon create a new national park which will protect more than 600 gorillas, along with other threatened species such as chimpanzees, forest elephants, buffaloes, and bongo. Called Deng Deng National Park, the new protected area measures approximately 224 square miles (580 ...

Three months after Cameroon created a park to help protect the Cross River gorilla, it declares a second park to safeguard an important population of western lowland gorillas.

A quarter-century of data reveals how changing weather patterns and land use, combined with overfishing and pollution, are taking a heavy toll on penguin numbers.