Asia
WCS works in dozens of wild places across our planet’s largest continent, with scientific bases in landscapes and seascapes from western India’s rainforest-covered mountains to Mongolia’s windswept steppe to the coral-studded waters of Fiji. Through our landscape approach, we focus on some of the most ecologically intact wild places remaining on Earth, at sites that are biologically outstanding, and which offer the best chance for viable, long-term conservation of wildlife.
Naturalist William Beebe led the society’s earliest scientific explorations in Asia, surveying pheasants in 1909. WCS has since established a long list of Asian protected areas and pioneered hundreds of studies on native wildlife, including pandas in China, tigers in Thailand, and monkeys in Malaysia. Today, Asia’s remaining intact wild places provide exceptional and important opportunities for conservation. By working with governments and communities to bolster environmental policy, train new generations of environmental stewards, support sustainable livelihoods, and connect protected areas, WCS seeks to protect the continent’s wild places in perpetuity.
Featured Landscapes
This rugged region of Sarawak harbors endangered Bornean orangutans, bearded pigs, barking deer, and clouded leopards.
This landscape, located on Indonesia’s Sulawesi, is home to babirusa, maleo, and other endangered wildlife.
One of the last strongholds of elephants, tigers, and rhinoceros, these forests form part of the Sumatra World Heritage Site.
Covering a big part of the Tibetan plateau, this region includes the Chang Tang Nature Reserve, Earth's second largest protected area.
The world's largest expanse of unspoiled grasslands, this steppe hosts the annual migration of about a million Mongolian gazelles.
Home to the Malayan tiger and the Asian elephant, this lowland rainforest is one of only a few remaining in Peninsular Malaysia.
The largest continuous forest block in Sumatra, this ecosystem contains the island’s most important tiger and rhino populations.
This landscape is an important site for the conservation of tigers, leopards, and their prey in Southeast Asia.
Five new mammals have been discovered in these rugged mountains, located on the border between Lao PDR and Vietnam.
Tigers, bears, red pandas, and hornbills are just some of the wildlife that inhabits this 12,000-square-mile wilderness.
Some of the rarest waterbirds inhabit this remote region, once virtually inaccessible, but now criss-crossed by roads.
Often called the “roof of the world,” Central Asia’s Pamir Mountains boast some of Earth's highest peaks.
The rare Siberian tiger breeds in these forests, nestled in the Russian Far East. Bears and Eurasian lynx also roam here.
These forests support tigers, Asian elephants, and countless bird species. Illegal hunting and logging pose serious threats.
The 7,000 square miles of deciduous forest is prime tiger habitat, with the potential to support more than 1,000 of the big cats.
The largest lake in Southeast Asia, Tonle Sap supports huge colonies of waterbirds—storks, ibises, pelicans—and a million people.
The Malenad-Mysore Tiger Landscape of the Western Ghats mountains is home to one of the world’s largest tiger populations.