The following are excerpts of remarks given today by WCS President and CEO Cristián Samper at the Celebration of World Wildlife Day 2020, on the theme of “Sustaining all life on earth.”

The 13th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Migratory Species (CMS CoP13) is taking place in Gandhinagar, India, from February 15 to 22, 2020.

A team of scientists from the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), University of Queensland, and a dozen other organizations has developed a new alternative to “biodiversity offsetting” where compensation is provided to achieve an outcome of “no net loss” of biodiversity from development projects.

The following statement was issued by Sara Marinello, WCS Vice President for Government & Community Affairs:

Sustainable seafood and perfect wine pairings were featured at the Wildlife Conservation Society’s seventh annual Sip for the Sea – a benefit that showcases and celebrates WCS’s marine conservation and education work at the New York Aquarium and around the globe.

Over 20,000 smallholder coffee farmers in southern Sumatra will benefit from a unique collaboration whereby global food and agri-business Olam International will grant use of its platform, the Olam Farmer Information System (OFIS), to the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) to tackle forest encroachment in the Bukit Barisan Selatan (BBSNP) landscape in southern Sumatra.

As the planet continues to warm and wildlife species vanish at an unprecedented rate, five leading environmental organizations have come together to target the world’s greatest undervalued and unprotected solution to the climate and extinction crises— forests. The organizations—Global Wildlife Conservation, Rainforest Foundation Norway, United Nations Development Programme, Wildlife Conservation Society and World Resources Institute—will announce the new Forests for Life Partnership during an event celebrating the role of Nature-based Solutions at the U.N. Climate Action Summit in New York tonight, Sept. 25.

Sharks and rays are one of the most endangered groups of animals on the planet.There are more than 1,000 species of sharks and rays living today.Approximately 100 species of sharks and rays are regularly traded for their fins and meat.Since 2013, CITES began to list regularly commercially traded species of sharks and rays under the convention’s appendices, mainly under CITES Appendix II, which is about sustainable trade and utilization.There are 18 species up for listing at CITES Cop 18 (a...

Mako sharks, also known as the ‘cheetahs of the sharks,’ are the fastest of all shark species, but they cannot outswim the threat of overfishing in the world’s oceans, say conservation experts from WCS (Wildlife Conservation Society) and other groups who applaud plans by government delegates to increase protection for makos and other sharks and rays fishes at CITES, convening this week in Switzerland.

The fate of the saiga, a prehistoric antelope species, found on the windswept steppes of Central Asia, will be decided as CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) gathers for its 18th Conference of the Parties (CoP18) August 17-28 in Geneva. The saiga is on the IUCN Red List as Critically Endangered and is vital to the ecosystem of Mongolia’s steppe.