By analyzing records in countries of the Amazon and Orinoco basins—which include Brazil, Venezuela, Colombia, Bolivia, Peru and Ecuador—a paper published today in Oryx—The International Journal of Conservation, categorized 85 past and present initiatives or projects that work to preserve the South American River Turtle, or charapa (Podocnemis expansa), a critically endangered species. These projects are protecting more than 147,000 female turtles across the basin, an unprecedented figure.

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.

Scientists with the Universidad San Francisco de Quito and WCS Ecuador Program publishing in the journal BioTropica say that subsistence hunting in Neotropical rain forests – the mainstay of local people as a source of protein and a direct connection to these ecosystems – is in jeopardy from a variety of factors.

The following statement was released by the Wildlife Conservation Society today in regard to a landmark report from the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES):

The last known female Giant Yangtze Soft Shell Turtle (Rafetus swinhoei) died on Saturday, April 13, 2019, during recovery from anesthesia after an artificial insemination procedure in Suzhou, China.