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Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS)

Organisation O0102
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Contact detailsThe Wildlife Conservation Society
2300 Southern Boulevard
Bronx, New York 10460
USA
Phone: +1 718 220 5100
Type of organisationConservation organisation
Organisation's interestConservation
LocationUnited States of America
Learning Group member?Yes

Description
The Wildlife Conservation Society saves wildlife and wild lands through careful science, international conservation, education, and the management of the world’s largest system of urban wildlife parks. Today WCS is at work in 53 nations across Africa, Asia, Latin America and North America. WCS’ conservation efforts extend beyond the boundaries of protected into large relatively intact landscapes and seascapes where some of the worlds poorest most marginalized people live. Their dependence on the direct consumption of natural resources often makes local people strong advocates for conservation and important partners for WCS. Helping secure local livelihoods is a powerful means for WCS to maintaining a local constituency for conservation, and to conserve wildlife in wild places.

Projects
1. Community Markets for Conservation (COMACO), Zambia: WCS works with local families in six districts of the eastern province to increase agricultural income by providing wildlife-friendly producers with access to the “It’s Wild” brand that sells at a price premium in urban markets. “It’s Wild” producers are required to abandon illegal hunting and adopt improved farming practices.

2. The Albertine Rift Program, Africa: WCS improves conservation in this biologically rich region by helping managers of protected areas enhance their knowledge, skills and capacity for effectively managing these areas. Alongside these efforts, WCS is helping to formalize and secure land tenure for returning refugees in Uganda as an essential step towards ensuring access to a sustainable supply of resources and supporting conservation of the regions spectacular wildlife.

3. Ecotourism in Nyungwe National Park, Rwanda: With a history of supporting Nyungwe National Park, WCS is now helping Rwanda develop eco-tourism focused on the park’s huge populations of primates and diversity of birds.

4. Madidi National Park, Bolivia: WCS is working with the indigenous Tacana community to secure traditional land claims and increase household income from sustainable use of non-timber forest products (honey, incense, wildlife).

5. Maya Biosphere Reserve, Peten, Guatemala: WCS works with local communities in forest concessions surrounding national parks to plan sustainable extraction of timber and non-timber forest products (Xate palm, ocellated turkey), and helps local people to protect their lands and resources from illegal encroachment and fires.

6. Cambodia’s Northern Plains: WCS is working in cooperation with the government of Cambodia and local communities to promote wildlife conservation through eco-tourism, particularly for bird watching.

7. TransLinks is a new USAID-supported program at WCS in partnership with the Earth Institute at Columbia University, Enterprise Works/VITA, Forest Trends, and the Land Tenure Center at the University of Wisconsin. The program is design to identify and support approaches that better integrate natural resource conservation, poverty reduction, and democratic governance. Core activities include applied research at WCS and partner field sites, developing decision support tools, holding training workshops, and disseminating lessons learned.

Geographic coverage
Africa
Americas
Asia

People
Kent Redford
E-mail: kredford@wcs.org

Web URL
http://www.wcs.org/

 

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