For the past 20 years, members of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA) have celebrated our planet with annual Party For The Planet^® events. The New York Aquarium will commemorate the annual Party for the Planet® celebration with two events. On June 1^st there will be a volunteer clean-up of Coney Island Creek, bringing attention to this urban waterway that is now the focus of a revitalization effort. On the following Saturday, June 8th, the aquarium will celebrate World Ocean’s Day with a “March for the Ocean”, a parade on the Coney Island Boardwalk to highlight the challenges posed by plastic waste to the waters of New York and celebrate New York’s commitment to healthier, cleaner waters. 

Scientists with the Universidad San Francisco de Quito and WCS Ecuador Program publishing in the journal BioTropica say that subsistence hunting in Neotropical rain forests – the mainstay of local people as a source of protein and a direct connection to these ecosystems – is in jeopardy from a variety of factors.

The following statement was released by the Wildlife Conservation Society today in regard to a landmark report from the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES):

A sweeping new census published in the journal Environmental Research Letters estimates 52,800 western chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes verus) live in eight countries in western Africa, with most of them found outside of protected areas, some of which are threatened by intense development pressures.

The Coney Island Polar Bear Club has announced donations totaling over $60,000 to local nonprofits in the Coney Island community, including a $20,000 donation for the New York Aquarium’s local marine conservation efforts.

Fifty-two clans on Manus Island, Papua New Guinea (PNG), recently renewed conservation agreements to protect 43,000 Hectares of their forested land areas.

A new study maps nature’s strongholds where the world’s threatened species can take refuge from the ravages of unregulated hunting, land clearing, and other industrial activities.

A sweeping new study published in the journal Science says that chimpanzee’s complex cultures – including the use of tools and other behaviors – are being lost as human disturbance expands into previously wild areas.