Our goal is to conserve the world's largest wild places in 16 priority regions, home to more than 50% of the planet's biodiversity.
WCS uses science to discover and understand the natural world. This knowledge helps us engage and inspire decision-makers, communities, and millions of supporters to take action with us to protect the wildlife and wild places we all care about.
WCS scientists study what wildlife species need to thrive. With this knowledge we invest in abating threats to wildlife within their most important strongholds and the corridors that connect them. We target large, iconic, wide-ranging species because of their intrinsic value and because they are vital to ecosystem health. By saving them, we protect all other biodiversity that shelters under their conservation canopy.
Over the past century, WCS has established long-term conservation presence in the last wild places across the Americas, Africa, Asia, and Oceania, built strong and trusting partnerships, and acquired a depth of knowledge that ensures effective conservation action. We protect these last wild places because they are intact, biodiverse, most resilient to climate change, and bastions for large, iconic wildlife species.
We assist governments and communities to protect the natural systems critical to saving wildlife and wild places, securing valuable flows of ecosystems services and local livelihoods based on principles of social and environmental sustainability.
We partner with indigenous and local people in achieving their vision for a more secure and resilient future, where wildlife remains a visible and culturally valued part of the wild places where they live.
We use our local presence and global influence to stop wildlife poaching, block trafficking across transit routes, and reduce demand for wildlife and wildlife products.
We use our global health expertise to investigate and combat diseases that move between people, domestic animals, and wildlife, and threaten the health of all.
We work with our local and government partners to protect the earth's oceans, coastlines, inland waters, and marine life, and also to provide billions of people with food and livelihood security.
We bring the private sector together with governments, communities, and consumers to develop the policy options and scientific solutions that benefit nature and business.
We take action to minimize threats to wildlife so that species populations are stable or increasing, to ensure that hunting and fishing are sustainable, and to see that conflicts between people and wildlife are resolved.
We apply our science to discover how best to limit the impacts of climate change on ecosystems, wildlife, and people, increasing resilience and providing insurance against a rapidly changing world.
Science helps us discover and understand the natural world. And we use the knowledge gained to engage and inspire decision-makers, communities, and millions of supporters to take action with us.
We contribute our scientific, technical, and policy expertise to international discussions between governments and to influence international policies and commitments that will benefit wildlife and wild places.
We are dedicated to building leadership capacity for wildlife conservation on a global scale by providing support and mentoring to the best and the brightest young conservationists to become the conservation leaders of tomorrow.