WCS Executive Vice President of Public Affairs John Calvelli issued the following statement following the passage of Trade Promotion Authority

The following statement is from John Calvelli, WCS Executive Vice President for Public Affairs and Director of the 96 Elephants Campaign, on today’s House Foreign Affairs Committee markup of H.R. 2494, the Global Anti-Poaching Act.

Bronx, NY -- June 23, 2015 -- State bill would enable California to play a critical role in ending the current poaching crisis driving elephants toward extinction.

June 22, 2015--Following the destruction of 662 kgs of confiscated ivory in Beijing on 29th May 2015, Zhao Shucong, Head of China’s State Forestry Administration, set out 10 tough measures to tackle the illegal wildlife trade and suggested that there would be strict control of ivory processing and trade until the commercial processing and sale of ivory and its products are eventually halted.

June 18, 2015– Forest rangers from the Gunung Leuser National Park (GLNP), the Government of Indonesia, and the Wildlife Conservation Society’s Wildlife Crimes Unit (WCU) announced today the arrest of two suspects engaged in the illegal trade of helmeted hornbill beaks. The suspects’ operation involved 30 hunters who poached the birds inside Indonesia’s Leuser landscape—a continuous forest covering more than 25,000 square kilometers, most of which lies in the provin...

June 17 -- With recommendations to inform the development of a new Yellowstone-Area Bison Conservation Plan, the National Parks Conservation Association, National Wildlife Federation, and Wildlife Conservation Society today released a report, The Future of Yellowstone Bison Management. The report coincides with the ongoing effort by the National Park Service, State of Montana, and other federal and tribal collaborating agencies to develop a new management plan for bison in and around Yellow...

PHOTO: Confiscated illegal ivory Photo Credit: New York State Department of Environmental ConservationUnited States to Destroy More than One Ton of Confiscated Ivory at Public Event in New York’s Times SquareSends Message that Wildlife Trafficking, Elephant Poaching Must be Crushed What: The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will destroy more than one ton of illegal ivory to raise awareness of the elephant poaching and wildlife trafficking crisis.When: June 19, 2015, 10:30 a.m.(Media setup be...

WCS has joined with other conservation groups  to urge the European Union to ban the use of the veterinary anti-inflammatory drug diclofenac because of its harmful effects on vulture populations.

June 12, 2015 – The following text is excerpted from remarks delivered on June 11 by WCS President and CEO Cristián Samper and WCS Board Chair Ward W. Woods at the 2015 WCS Annual Gala, Turning Tides, at the Central Park Zoo.

NEW YORK (June 11, 2015)—Scientists studying blue whales in the waters of Chile through DNA profiling and photo-identification may have solved the mystery of where these huge animals go to breed, as revealed by a single female blue whale named “Isabela,” according to a recent study by the Chile’s Blue Whale Center/Universidad Austral de Chile, NOAA and the Wildlife Conservation Society.