SUVA, FIJI, October 21, 2025 - A new study led by WCS, University of the South Pacific, and partners has found that coral reefs in Fiji showed remarkable resilience after being battered by Category 5 Tropical Cyclone Winston in 2016. Despite losing more than half of their hard coral cover on average, reefs rebounded within four years, reassembling to nearly their pre-cyclone condition. The study, out now in Coral Reefs, analyzed 18 reef sites across two large barrier reef systems in...

NEW YORK, NY, October 21, 2025 – A new study led by the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) finds that artificial intelligence (AI) models are providing more accurate and more hopeful predictions for the future of coral reefs amid climate change. Findings show that while many reefs face serious risks and degradation, others may remain stable or even recover, especially where local management reduces pressures like overfishing, water pollution, and coastal degradation. Out now in th...

NEW YORK, NY, April 2, 2025 – New science shows that overfishing is eroding the sustainability of tropical coral reef fisheries in East Africa, with small-scale fishers losing out on fisheries productivity as entire species disappear from their catch. The study, out now in Sustainability and led by scientists from WCS and the University of Rhode Island, highlights that fisheries management strategies that focus solely on targeting a few fast-growing, resilient species have failed to com...

New York, NY, December 3, 2024 — Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) today announced it has been selected as a winner of the 2024 Amazon Web Services (AWS) IMAGINE Grant, a public grant opportunity open to registered 501(c) nonprofit organizations in the United States who are using technology to solve the world’s most pressing challenges. The grant will enhance WCS’s MERMAID platform, accelerating use of cloud-based artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) tools t...

NEW YORK, NY, October 10, 2024 – New research from the University of Sydney, WCS, and partners shows that international conservation efforts account for approximately 10 percent of fish on coral reefs. The global study, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, was carried out by Professor Joshua Cinner from theSchool of Geosciences and Dr Iain Caldwell from the Wildlife Conservation Society. The international research team als...

New York, April 15, 2024 -- News released today by the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and International Coral Reef Initiative (ICRI) confirms what WCS scientists have been observing in the field for months: The world is experiencing its fourth global coral bleaching event, the second in the last 10 years. Read the NOAA/ICRI news release here. Bleaching-level heat stress, caused by prolonged increases in superheated ocean temperatures, is predicted to be extensive ...

Samarkand, Uzbekistan, Feb. 9, 2024 -- A Wildlife Conservation Society delegation is heading to the Convention on Migratory Species of Wild Animals CoP14, Feb. 12-17, in Samarkand, Uzbekistan. The WCS delegation will be led by Dr. Susan Lieberman, WCS VP of International Policy, and includes WCS scientists and experts from WCS International Policy, WCS Sharks and Rays, WCS Argentina, WCS Brazil, WCS Mongolia, WCS Afghanistan, WCS Temperate Asia, and WCS-EU. Lieberman is available for inter...

New York, January 19, 2024 – Scientists are providing in a new research paper an analysis of highly productive marine areas to help the world achieve the protection of at least 30 percent of the planet by 2030. The parties to the Convention of Biological Diversity agreed to this worldwide goal upon the adoption of the Kunming-Montreal Biological Diversity Framework in 2022. The multifaceted contribution of highly productive marine areas, which enable biodiversity, su...

Wildlife Conservation Society scientists led an initial assessment of concentrations of “forever chemicals” in the filets of fish species harvested by Indigenous and rural residents of Arctic Alaska and described the results as “encouraging” because they were below levels of concern.

Environmental leaders from 185 countries will gather in Vancouver, Canada for the Seventh Assembly of the Global Environment Facility (GEF) from August 22-26.