WCS announced that Fabricio Díaz Santos, Coordinator of WCS's Jaguar Conservation Program in Nicaragua, has been honored with a 2019 Disney Conservation Hero Award. The award recognizes local citizens for their commitment to save wildlife, protect habitats and inspire their communities to take part in conservation efforts. Recipients from around the world were nominated by nonprofit environmental organizations, and each honoree and his nominating organization will share a $1,500...

White-lipped peccaries have declined by as much as 87 percent to 90 percent from their historical range in Central America, signaling a population collapse of a key species in the region, according to a study published recently in the journal Biological Conservation. 

At COP25, for the first time, the eight countries of Central America presented their regional climate action plan, which commits to protect Mesoamerica’s five great forests as part of the natural solution to the climate crisis. This ambitious initiative aims to bring together the agricultural and environmental sectors to restore and conserve 10 million hectares of forests and degraded land by 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality in the agricultural and forest sector by 2040.

The new study by WCS (Wildlife Conservation Society), the University of Miami, and Universidad de Puerto Rico have detected a decrease in the average size of adult queen conch (Lobatus gigas), possibly the result of fishers using shell length rather than thickness as a reliable indicator of age.

The following statement was issued by the Wildlife Conservation Society as the United Nations focused on the importance of nature-based solutions to the world’s climate crisis.The Nature-Based Solutions Coalition of the UN Climate Action Summit hosted a high-level event today to highlight the critical role of nature for climate action and the pathways to unlocking nature’s full potential for mitigation and adaptation to deliver the Paris Agreement and carbon neutrality by 2050. ...

Local and international NGOs—including Global Wildlife Conservation and Wildlife Conservation Society—joined forces with four Central American Countries and the Central American Commission for Environment and Development (CCAD), indigenous peoples and local communities today to launch the 5 Great Forests Initiative, a critical collaboration to protect Mesoamerica’s five largest forests. Mesoamerica’s five great forests—the Maya Forest in Mexico, Guatemala, and Beliz...

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.

Experts from the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) reacted to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s recently released recovery plan for the jaguar. 

WCS shared a video today showing incredible footage of a jaguar swimming across Placencia Lagoon in southern Belize.  The video, shot by Belizean boat captain Darryl Lozano, shows the jaguar effortlessly swimming across a channel until it reaches some red mangroves on a shoreline. WCS recognizes the Placencia Lagoon as an important fish nursery, with rare Halophila seagrass and a mangrove forest surrounding a critical Antillean manatee hotspot. WCS is supporting local efforts to get this la...

The Nassau grouper—a fish known for its spectacular spawning aggregations in and around the Caribbean Sea—is now a “Critically Endangered” species, according to a new assessment by the IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) that was recently published and supported by studies and data generated by WCS scientists working in the coastal waters of Belize.