The following are excerpts of remarks given today by WCS President and CEO Cristián Samper at the Celebration of World Wildlife Day 2020, on the theme of “Sustaining all life on earth.”

March 3, 2020/World Wildlife Day – The Wildlife Conservation Society’s Education Department at the Bronx Zoo is attending proceedings at the United Nations today with school children representing Comp Science High, Dalton School, PS 154 and the WCS Wildlife Conservation Corps. The students are from The Bronx, Brooklyn and Manhattan. The purpose of the delegation is to demonstrate the power of youth voice on environmental and conservation issues and to give the students an opportunity...

March 3, 2020 – A giant pangolin (Smutsia gigantea) that was seized from poachers in Northern Congo has been successfully rescued and returned to the wild by WCS staff and partners. The photos included (see link above) show the pangolin in the basket used for transport during the rescue operation; rehydrating in the room at the WCS facility where it spent one night; and the animals as it is released into the wild.   Pangolins are among the most commonly trafficked animals in the ...

The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) released dramatic video today showing the rescue of an Asian elephant that had tumbled into a Vietnam War-era bomb crater in Cambodia and couldn’t get out.

WCS issued a statement and analysis regarding a decision of the 24^th February 2020, 16^th meeting of the Standing Committee of the 13^th National People’s Congress, on “Comprehensively Prohibiting the Illegal Trade of Wild Animals, Eliminating the Bad Habits of Wild Animal Consumption, and Protecting the Health and Safety of the People.”

Through its Climate Adaptation Fund, the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) is soliciting proposals from nonprofit conservation organizations implementing new methods that help wildlife adapt to the rapidly-shifting environmental conditions brought about by climate change. 

Read the Study Here: http://bit.ly/38Jxb30NEW YORK (February 21, 2020) – An international study published today in the journal One Earth found that at least 26 percent of the ocean requires conservation attention in order to preserve Earth’s marine biodiversity. The study found that conserving a portion of habitat for all marine species would require an additional 8.5 million km2 (3.2M square miles – an area about the size of Brazil) of new conservation areas (2.5 percent...

The following statement was released by the Wildlife Conservation Society:“We are greatly saddened by the news this week that the sentences of the eight conservationists unjustly imprisoned in Iran on charges of espionage were upheld. “All eight of these Iranian women and men, Niloufar Bayani, Taher Ghadirian, Amir Hossein Khaleghi, Houman Jowkar, Sepideh Kashani, Abdolreza Kouhpayeh, Sam Rajabi, and Morad Tahbaz are respected conservation professionals who were arrested in...

The jaguar proposal for Appendix I and II was approved by consensus at the CMS CoP 13 in India today. 

Prioritizing and tracking the protection of countries’ ecosystems – from wetlands to reefs to forests and more – is critical to protecting Earth’s biodiversity.