The Nassau grouper—a fish known for its spectacular spawning aggregations in and around the Caribbean Sea—is now a “Critically Endangered” species, according to a new assessment by the IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) that was recently published and supported by studies and data generated by WCS scientists working in the coastal waters of Belize.

A newly published study by WCS (Wildlife Conservation Society) has found that impacts of Tropical Cyclone Winston on the coastal communities of Fiji went beyond the immediate loss of lives and infrastructure. The cyclone also had a lingering effect on the fisheries many communities depend on, particularly on the availability of commercially important crustaceans. 

WCS participated in the “Tencent for the Planet” Partnership Conference on December 19^th, joining the Chinese tech giant and a cadre of conservation groups in a global effort to fight wildlife crime. 

A coalition of major public aquariums has announced that they are opposed to the federal government’s pending issuance of permits to allow repeated seismic blasting along the East Coast in search of offshore oil and gas. Marine scientists are concerned that the prolonged and extreme noise pollution introduced into already highly stressed ocean environments will disturb marine life from tiny plankton to commercially valuable fish stocks and even giant whales.

A study of 89 fishing communities in East Africa has found that good neighbors who agree with common proposals to improve shared fisheries management are uncommon, illustrating that the “tragedy of the commons” dilemma is alive for many fisheries facing sustainable use challenges.

Over 200 individuals from conservation organisations, governments, companies and financial institutions have joined in a “Call to Action” for greater efforts to secure “Biodiversity Net Gain” in the context of development.

Government-employed park rangers in Central American countries described a challenging and often inhospitable work environment in their responses in a recent survey (English | Spanish) on their wellbeing and working conditions conducted by Global Wildlife Conservation, Panthera, the global wild cat conservation organization, the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and local partners. 

Producing the first comprehensive fine-scale map of the world’s remaining marine and terrestrial wild places, conservation scientists writing in the journal Nature say that just 23 percent of the world’s landmass can now be considered wilderness, with the rest – excluding Antarctica – lost to the direct effects of human activities.

WCS President and CEO Dr. Cristián Samper issued the following statement on the announcement of $185 million in new support from Michael Bloomberg and Ray Dalio’s OceanX to increase ocean exploration and protection at the Our Ocean Conference in Bali, Indonesia.

As groups gather for the Global Climate Action Summit in San Francisco from Sept 12-14, WCS has released a video showcasing how communities in Madagascar are doing their part to fight climate change.  Watch the video here. Local indigenous communities in the Makira landscape have limited access to economic opportunities and relied on traditional forms of natural resource extraction such as illegal logging and land-intensive rice farming for their survival. These livelihoods not only ca...