Elephant poaching is rising at an alarming rate, and it's now reached an all-time high since the 1989 global ivory ban. In an article for the New York Daily News, John Robinson, WCS's executive vice president for conservation and science, discusses potential solutions for reducing global poaching. 

SMART Technology Unveiled at World Conservation Congress in Jeju, Korea Strategic Tool Designed to Identify Poaching Hotspots JEJU, REPUBLIC OF KOREA (SEPT. 11, 2012) – A free high-tech tool to combat the wildlife poaching crisis was offered to grassroots rangers by a consortium of conservation organizations at the World Conservation Congress. SMART, the Spatial Monitoring and Reporting Tool, is designed to help park and community rangers fight illegal wildlife trade by identifying p...

WCS President and CEO, Dr. Cristián Samper, delivered the following keynote speech during the 2012 IUCN World Conservation Congress in Jeju, South Korea. His speech may be read below.Martha's Legacy:The past, present and future of species, ecosystems and human livelihoods"On September 1, 1914, nearly 100 years ago, the last passenger pigeon passed away in a cage in the Cincinnati Zoo after many years in captivity. Her name was Martha. She was the last of her kind and with her, this extraordinary...

Poachers target elephants for their tusks, which they illegally sell for profit. Although demand is highest in China and Japan, a recent seizure in New York City serves as a stark reminder that no place is immune from the illegal wildlife trade.

Seized Ivory Valued at More than $2 Million Retail; Underground Trade of Illegal Ivory Harvested from Threatened and Endangered Elephants Has Sharply Risen Since 2007 DA Vance: “Poachers Should Not Have a Market in Manhattan” Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance, Jr., today announced the guilty pleas of two ivory dealers and their businesses for selling and offering for sale illegal elephant ivory with a retail value of more than $2 million. MUKESH GUPTA, 67, pled guilty to one c...

Forest elephants congregate en masse within TNS, a new World Heritage Site, sometimes in groups of 100 or more. Nowhere else in the world are this many forest elephants spotted together. 

SAINT PETERSBURG, RUSSIA (July 2, 2012) – A Central African protected area that straddles three countries and teems with gorillas, elephants, and chimpanzees has been named a World Heritage Site by the United Nations Education, Science, and Cultural Organization, UNESCO. Called the Sangha Tri-National Protected Area complex (known by its French acronym TNS) the site consists of a 25,000 km2 (10,000 square-mile) contiguous area across the Republic of Congo (Brazzaville), Cameroon, and the Centra...

Bandits murdered 7 people and 14 okapis when they attacked the village of Epulu and Okapi Wildlife Reserve. Although okapis share physical similarities to zebras, they are more closely related to giraffes.

Park Headquarters Destroyed by Bandits in Epulu, Democratic Republic of Congo  Attack on Okapi Faunal Reserve leaves guards and villagers dead and wildlife slaughtered  WCS staff working in the park safe and accounted for  Funds desperately needed to rebuild park facilities and resume conservation of wildlife  New York (June 29, 2012)—The Wildlife Conservation Society reports that all WCS staff members working in the Okapi Faunal Reserve ...

A Statement Issued by Dr. James Deutsch, Executive Director for the Africa Program of the Wildlife Conservation Society NEW YORK (June 28, 2012)—“Gabon becomes the second African country, after Kenya, to completely reject the ivory trade by burning their valuable stockpiles of confiscated and recovered elephant ivory. When Kenya first did this in 1989, it helped lead to an international ban on trade in ivory, and that led to a collapse in the price of ivory and a remarkable rec...