The federal government must step into a leadership role, recognizing the essential services that peatland ecosystems provide for communities, climate, biodiversity, and water security, write WCS Canada's Victoria Goodday and Laura Tanguay.

"We believe it is the role of large international conservation organizations to help governments realize the inter-connectedness of human rights and conservation, of people and natural places, and to steadily push national policy and dialogue towards greater voice and agency for Indigenous peoples and local communities," write WCS's Sushil Raj and Sharanya Kanikkannan in a new commentary for Mongabay. "At times," they continue, "the challenges may appear to be daunting, but with long-term commitment and greater alignment towards a common vision, we can translate human rights principles into practical reality across the conservation sector for the benefit of both people and wildlife."

In a new episode of the WCS Wild Audio podcast, Hannah Kaplan talks to WCS's Alexa Montefiore and Yahaira Urbina, along with Rohit Singh from WWF. Rangers are the frontline guardians of conservation efforts, they explain, regularly putting their physical and mental health at risk to protect our planet. But they can't do it alone—they need more support and resources to stay safe and effective in their vital work. That’s where URSA, the Universal Ranger Support Alliance—which supports the International Ranger Federation and counts WCS among its members—steps in to ensure they get the backing they deserve.

“Perhaps the most important threat to this ecosystem is the growing use of intense and extensive fires by landholders to improve pasture quality," writes WCS's Rob Wallace in the fourth installment in his blog series on the Llanos de Moxos expedition in Bolivia. Says Rob, "“Visiting this area, generating more robust data, and publishing a summary document will hopefully further encourage local actors to take formal steps toward protecting it.”

Storm surges and sea-level rise damage sanitation systems and threaten ecosystems and human health, writes Amelia Wenger in a new op-ed for The Revelator with WaterAid Australia's Tanvi Oza. "We need to take this risk seriously," the authors warn, concluding, "We must shift our view of ecosystems as the passive recipients of waste to dynamic, protective systems essential to human health and resilience."

Roughly 90 percent of coral reefs globally face collapse by 2050 due to human activity. At the same time, close to a quarter of all marine life is found in coral reef ecosystems, which support some one billion of the world's population. In this week's episode of WCS Wild Audio, we explore Miamba Yetu Sustainable Reefs Investment program, a creative new financing mechanism designed to help protect coral reefs off the coasts of Kenya and Tanzania that are resilient to climate change, while supporting the communities that depend on them.

In a new essay for PBS Nature, WCS's Joel Berger highlights the threat to wild species as we vacation in their habitats. "Such visitation," he writes, "can become an intense problem when the timing of harmful tourist activities coincides with maternal biological demands, especially if expectant mothers are thereby thwarted from feeding in areas with the best nutrition." Adds Joel, "While nature-based tourism supports local communities, we cannot ignore the well-being of species or health of the ecosystems that attract us. If we can forego a zest for that ambitious close-up photo, the throttled roar of a motorcycle, or the thrill of an e-bike pushed to its limit down a two-track spoor, we better conserve the species and places we profess to love."

In 2004, the investment bank and financial services firm Goldman Sachs came into possession of a group of distressed assets that included a 680,000-acre parcel of land at the bottom of South America. In Part 2 of the WCS Wild Audio podcast's celebration of the 20th anniversary of the establishment of Chile’s Karukinka Natural Park, we dive into the exceptional story of how Goldman came to gift this pristine landscape to WCS for conservation.

"Following reintroductions of the Eurasian lynx to the Swiss Jura and Alps in the 1970s," writes WCS's Justine Shanti Alexander in a new essay for Oryx, "the cats have recolonized parts of France, Liechtenstein, Austria, Germany and Italy. Since then, the species has naturally expanded its range and moved across the border into France, making its return to the Giffre Valley seem all the more possible."

Canada’s draft Ocean Noise Strategy lacks the urgency, clarity and specificity needed to protect the Arctic’s soundscape, writes WCS Canada's Bill Halliday in a new commentary for the National Observer.

“Our Rights, Our Future, Right Now” is the theme of this year’s International Human Rights Day. "The focus is on the immediacy of human rights in our daily lives and their centrality to our collective future," writes WCS's Sushil Raj in a new essay for PBS Nature. "They are also a central feature of conservation to protect the inherent dignity of Indigenous Peoples and local communities, who frequently play an outsized role in safeguarding our planet’s ecosystems."

"No child is too young to be introduced to STEM topics that encourage their natural curiosity to explore their natural world," writes Queens Zoo educator Frankie Molina in a new essay at PBS Nature celebrating Hispanic Heritage.

WCS's Kevin Brown and Sarah Walker join a broad group of conservation colleagues in a joint commentary for Carbon Pulse arguing that "at this moment, the Voluntary Carbon Market offers the best, most mature suite of tools available for injecting private finance into nature conservation, representing the fruit of decades of painstaking negotiations and research within UNFCCC signatory states."

In addressing Canada's 2030 Nature Strategy, says WCS's Justina Ray, "the stakes are high. Canada’s economic and social well-being, as well as its identity as a nation rich in natural splendour, depends upon the choices we make today."

A wave of change has swept through the world of coral reef science, as scientists develop new ways to collect, collate and analyze data. The reefs are vital to the health of the planet, and humanity: while they cover only 0.2 percent of the seafloor, they support at least 25 percent of marine species. And they play a role in the lives of around 1 billion people around the world. WCS's Emily Darling joins the Planet Beyond podcast to discuss.

The 300,000-hectare Karukinka Natural Park was created in 2004 after land in Chilean Tierra del Fuego was donated to the Wildlife Conservation Society by Goldman Sachs. As the park celebrates its 20th anniversary, we begin a two-part series on how its establishment helped to spur both the development of an ambitious WCS Country Program in Chile and the expansion of the country’s national conservation efforts.