Threats to the Amazon come not only from deforestation, but also from dams, roads, human-induced climate change, gold mining, petroleum extraction, shipping and the unplanned growth of cities, whose expanding populations consume more and more of the Amazon River’s resources.
Arctic Breeding Birds Need Our Attention
Posted by Wildlife Conservation Society on April 24, 2013 
During the summer, the coastal plain transforms itself from a sub-zero inhospitable place to a vast productive wetland. Millions of migratory birds from all over the world – including waterfowl and shorebirds – return there to breed on the tundra: timing their nesting activities with melting snow and a bountiful flush of insects.
Earth Day Opinion: Helping Coral Ecosystems Survive a Changing Climate
Posted by Wildlife Conservation Society on April 22, 2013 With corals across the globe bleaching due to advancing ocean temperatures, many of the world’s coral reef experts believe these centers of marine biodiversity may become the first casualty of climate change. But while the news on corals has been largely grim, it is not beyond hope.
Support for People and Wildlife Merge in Ecuador’s Yasuní National Park
Posted by Wildlife Conservation Society on March 6, 2013 Along Ecuador’s eastern border with Peru sits Yasuní National Park (YNP). At close to one million hectares, Yasuní is the largest expanse of protected lowland tropical forest in the country. Designated as a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve in 1989, the park is one of the world’s biodiversity jewels, containing at least 170 species of mammals, well over 596 bird species, more than 382 fish species, and a fantastic variety of flora.
Celebrating the Historic Ties of Native Americans to the Bison
Posted by Wildlife Conservation Society on March 1, 2013 Bison numbered over 30 million at the time of the United States’ founding, but that number dwindled to a mere 1,000 with the westward expansion of the United States. The American Bison Society, founded at the Bronx Zoo with the support of President Theodore Roosevelt, helped to restore bison numbers with animals transported west by rail from the Bronx. In the next century, bison numbers rebounded to nearly half a million.
Conservation as Wise Use in America’s Arctic
Posted by Wildlife Conservation Society on December 22, 2012 If a place on earth motivates a Bar-tailed Godwit to fly more than 9,000 miles from southern Australia, the Buff-breasted Sandpiper to fly 8,500 miles from the pampas of Argentina, and Arctic Terns to fly some 11,000 miles from Antarctic, well, that place must be something special. That special place is the coastal plain of Arctic Alaska, where these birds and millions of others come to breed in a still-remote nursery on top of the world.
National Bison Day Celebrates a Nutritious Meat Alternative Driving Rural Economies
Posted by Wildlife Conservation Society on November 19, 2012 National Bison Day is one of the signature components of legislation now working its way through the United States Congress. At a time of deep partisan gridlock, the National Bison Legacy Act, which would make the bison our National Mammal, boasts broad support among both Democrats and Republicans. The bill has 18 sponsors in the Senate and 7 in the House, split about evenly by party.
Conservation Plus Agriculture Equals True Food Security
Posted by Wildlife Conservation Society on November 8, 2012 The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization has estimated that to feed the world’s growing population over the next 40 years we must find ways to increase food production by 60 percent. Most proposed solutions target demand alone by increasing crop yields. An alternative approach gaining increased attention recognizes the mutual dependency of agriculture and conservation. The results are promising – putting more food on more tables while bringing additional benefits to the environment and rural communities.
Saving Other Turtles from George’s Lonesome Fate
Posted by Wildlife Conservation Society on October 24, 2012 For turtle species numbering in the hundreds or less, we may only have a few years before we lose these marvels of evolution forever. We have the ability to make a difference, and we have the ethical responsibility to respond. We must act now to ensure that future generations have the opportunity to spot a turtle in the wild and that no species finds itself reduced by human greed or mismanagement to one last, lonesome representative.
To Protect Threatened Species: Follow the Three R’s
Posted by Wildlife Conservation Society on September 13, 2012 The passenger pigeon was once among the most abundant birds on the planet, sometimes flying in flocks so vast they reportedly darkened the skies. Likewise, tens of millions of North American bison once thundered across the American Great Plains. As the United States emerged as a major global economy in the late 1800’s, both species experienced catastrophic losses due to overhunting. Yet when they arrived at a conservation crossroads, facing extinction or survival, they traveled two very different paths.
Martha’s Legacy: The Past, Present, and Future of Species, Ecosystems, and Human Livelihoods
Posted by Wildlife Conservation Society on September 6, 2012 
This year marks the 20th anniversary of the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development. Many of us saw this as a turning point, a time when the world adopted a new paradigm for development. We have come to realize that economic growth and social justice cannot be achieved at the expense of the environment.
The Bison: A National Symbol for All Americans
Posted by Wildlife Conservation Society on August 8, 2012 When Kai Ryssdal announced on National Public Radio’s daily financial round-up Marketplace recently that “political gridlock is over,” he wasn’t talking about health care, the national debt, or immigration policy. He was referring to legislation to make the North American bison our National Mammal. To celebrate the bison’s central place in the history and culture of the United States, conservationists, bison producers, sportsmen, and Native American tribes came together this spring to craft and advance the National Bison Legacy Act.
It was a pleasure to hear of a birthday on July 2nd, happening in Belize, site of the greatest barrier reef in the Western Hemisphere. It was a birthday marking the authorization of the Hol Chan Marine Reserve, 25 years ago. Joining in the commemoration were Belizeans and ex-patriot friends of Belize from around the world. Among those friends, the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS).
Independence Day in South Sudan
Posted by Wildlife Conservation Society on July 18, 2012 As Americans celebrate the Fourth of July each year with cookouts, concerts, and fireworks, it is almost easy to forget the holiday’s connection with the nation’s independence and the struggles to achieve it. Surely that was not the case on July 4, 1777. On its first anniversary the United States was still a young republic, with a war yet to be won to solidify the unalienable rights deemed “self-evident” in Thomas Jefferson’s enduring declaration. Much uncertainty likewise surrounded the new nation of the Republic of South Sudan this July as it celebrated its own first year of independence….
Protecting the World’s Great Bird Nursery
Posted by Wildlife Conservation Society on June 13, 2012 Originally one of four Naval Petroleum Reserves, the NPR-A encompasses 23.5 million acres, including most of western Arctic Alaska. Handed over to the Department of Interior and the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) in the 1970s, the NPR-A was also recognized by Congress for its exceptional wildlife values. At that time, the Interior department created so-called Special Areas to be given “maximal protection” when balancing energy activities. Teshekpuk Lake was one such area.
Perched on the water’s edge a few kilometers down a wide channel running south west from the vast and beautiful Lake Ayapuá, Uixi is part of Piagaçu Purus Sustainable Development Reserve. In addition to Uixi, Pinheiros and Evaristo, the reserve has 52 other small communities, pinpricked across 834,245 ha of várzea (seasonally flooded forest), higher, never-flooded terra firme rainforest, and lakes including Ayapuá. One-third the size of Vermont, Piagaçu Purus has been a sustainable development reserve since 2003. Within it it communities and conservationists work together to balance biodiversity conservation with achieving sustainable livelihoods for traditional communities, with only a closely controlled amount of commercial activity.
DIRECTIONS TO KARUKINKA
Posted by Wildlife Conservation Society on April 19, 2012 These past two weeks, I traveled to Karukinka with a team of Chilean business representatives to see how together we can preserve this landscape and make it sustainable for generations to come. We climbed Cerro Pietro Grande in sunshine, rain, snow and sleet, witnessing at the windblown top the kaleidoscope of nature’s fall colors across the grasslands, peat bogs and mountains. We were stuck on the snowy southern Andean Range, as our vehicle failed to overcome 8 inches of new snow. Before we were retrieved off the mountain by four-wheel drive trucks, we stood in wonder beneath condors gliding easily over the pass that had defeated us. Finally, we traversed Admiralty Sound amidst sea lions, leopard seals, penguins and albatross.
Expedition to Tierra Del Fuego’s Admiralty Sound
Posted by Wildlife Conservation Society on February 29, 2012 Wildlife Conservation Society conservationists recently returned from an expedition to Admiralty Sound in Tierra del Fuego, where they are working to establish a network of protected areas to protect wildlife in and around the Patagonian Sea.
Arctic Alaska’s Conservation Conundrum
Posted by Wildlife Conservation Society on February 2, 2012 
In the wake of Alaska’s pre-approval for aerial hunting of grizzly bears, muskoxen expert Dr. Joel Berger looks at the broader conservation issue of how we sustain biological diversity in a given landscape and when – if at all – humans should intervene.
Global Fishing Communities Putting the Heat on Climate Change Talks
Posted by Wildlife Conservation Society on December 7, 2011 Political disagreements on how to address climate change continue, while in the real world, shifting weather patterns, increasing temperatures, and more acidic oceans indicate that climate change is having significant impacts on people around the world.
Contest in the Congo: Central Africa’s Shot at Sustainable Development
Posted by Wildlife Conservation Society on November 30, 2011 
As some 30 million votes are counted in the wake of elections this month in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), another contest is shaping up in the Congo between those who would build systems of fair governance and those who would ransack Central Africa for its natural resources.
Path of the Pronghorn Leading To New Passages – Part 2
Posted by Wildlife Conservation Society on November 9, 2011 WCS Scientists blog from the field in a 2-part series that looks at pronghorn encountering difficult highway crossing points during their fall migration. The animals get a glimpse of the construction of underpasses and overpasses meant to keep wildlife and motorists off a collision course.
Path of the Pronghorn Leading To New Passages
Posted by Wildlife Conservation Society on November 2, 2011 WCS Scientists blog from the field in a 2-part series that looks at pronghorn encountering difficult highway crossing points during their fall migration. The animals get a glimpse of the construction of underpasses and overpasses meant to keep wildlife and motorists off a collision course.
Bats, Vultures and Owls Face More Tricks than Treats
Posted by Wildlife Conservation Society on October 28, 2011 As children prepare for their beloved Halloween trick-or-treat ritual, nature is playing tricks of its own with some of our autumnal holiday’s winged icons. Two expert conservationists with the Wildlife Conservation Society argue that to protect bats, owls, and vultures perhaps it’s time to give them some treats in the form of environmental and habitat protection.
Expedition to the Sacred Reef of Fiji #6
Posted by Wildlife Conservation Society on June 8, 2011 “We’re making history today,” Roko Josefa Cinavilakeba, the high chief (Roko Sau) of the Yasayasamoala Group, leaned over and said to me as we sped out to Totoya’s Sacred Reef.
Today, in honor of World Oceans Day, Roko Sau has declared Totoya’s first formal marine protected area (MPA). The MPA will be a no-fishing zone for the entire district, encompassing approximately four square kilometers of Totoya’s reef, including Daveta Tabu, the “sacred passage”.
