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.

While many conservation plans focus on only environmental indicators for success, the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS)’s coral reef program is trying a relatively new approach: focusing on both social and ecological processes and outcomes to ensure a long-term future for coral reef systems, according to a newly published study.

WCS’s Bolivia Program and the Institute of Ecology have won an Urban Intervention Program Award, a prestigious honor with national recognition for their online efforts to connect the country’s urban population with nature, specifically by enlisting residents of La Paz in research and conservation actions important for urban wildlife habitats and diversity.

The demand for feathers for ceremonial headdresses from the highland cultures of Papua New Guinea is putting a vulnerable species of parrot in peril, say WCS scientists.

Tanzania’s Wildlife Research Institute (TAWIRI) and WCS released the results of a massive wildlife survey showing that elephant numbers have stabilized in a key landscape known for rampant poaching just a few years ago.

On October 15, 2019, on World Food Day, Peru’s Minister of Environment, Fabiola Muñoz, and the Deputy Minister of Agricultural Policies of the Ministry of Agriculture, Paula Rosas, declared the country’s first ever “agrobiodiversity zone”: the “Andenes de Cuyocuyo.”  

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.

The following statement was issued by the Wildlife Conservation Society as the United Nations focused on the importance of nature-based solutions to the world’s climate crisis.The Nature-Based Solutions Coalition of the UN Climate Action Summit hosted a high-level event today to highlight the critical role of nature for climate action and the pathways to unlocking nature’s full potential for mitigation and adaptation to deliver the Paris Agreement and carbon neutrality by 2050. ...

 

Experts at the New York Aquarium recommend ten locations where people might have the best chance to see a whale from shore–including the roof of its own Ocean Wonders: Sharks!