New York, June 27, 2019 – The following statement was released today by Tim Tear, Executive Director of the Wildlife Conservation Society’s Africa Program: “The Wildlife Conservation Society is deeply concerned by the announcement of the Uganda Electric Regulatory Authority (ERA) that it seeks approval for a new hydroelectric plant connected to Murchison Falls. The falls represent the centerpiece of the Murchison Falls National Park—one of Uganda’s most popular tour...

— The new Boma-Badingilo Landscape program was launched by the US Government, Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), Government of South Sudan, and Local Community Representatives, on June 18^th, 2019 at the Boma National Park Headquarters, South Sudan. 

Leading conservation organizations, including Global Wildlife Conservation, Panthera, Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), and World Wildlife Fund, alongside The Belize Zoo, Foundation for Wildlife Conservation, Monkey Bay Wildlife Sanctuary and Field School, and the University of Belize and its Environmental Research Institute, have joined together to applaud the government of Belize for declaring new plans to protect the Maya Forest Corridor – a critical link in Central America’s largest forest and a vital wildlife pathway.

Nouabalé-Ndoki National Park, formed between WCS, the government of the Republic of Congo, and the local communities, is arguably the most advanced and demonstrably successful conservation models of its kind in Africa

 

WCS and partners have reported an astounding success, registering zero instances of elephant poaching for the past 12 months in Mozambique’s Niassa Reserve, a massive protected area plagued by rampant wildlife crime just a few years ago. 

The Wildlife Conservation Society extends congratulations to conservationist Lee White who was named this week by President Ali Bongo Ondimba as Gabon’s Minister for Forests, Sea, the Environment and Climate Plan.

WCS congratulates the Indian government for expanding protected areas in the wildlife-rich Western Ghats region to safeguard populations of endangered lion-tailed macaques (Macaca silenus), critically endangered Kolar leaf-nosed bats (Hipposideros hypophyllus), and other species.

The study’s authors—researchers from the California Polytechnic State University San Luis Obispo (Cal Poly), WCS (Wildlife Conservation Society), Swansea University, the University of Rhode Island (URI) and other groups—have found that fishing grounds with areas that are closed to fisheries but are periodically harvested are better than fishing grounds with permanent, no-take marine protected areas (MPAs).

A new analysis published in the journal Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment shows that the world’s protected areas (PAs) are experiencing major shortfalls in staffing and resources and are therefore failing on a massive scale to safeguard wildlife.

Frogs need elephants. That’s what a new WCS-led study says that looked at the role of water-filled elephant tracks in providing predator-free breeding grounds and pathways connecting frog populations.