WCS uses cutting-edge science to understand the impacts of climate change on wildlife and natural resources, plan conservation for a rapidly changing world, and implement on-the-ground solutions to protect ecosystems.

Our Goal

Address the causes and effects of climate change on the ecosystems on which both wildlife and human communities depend.

Why WCS?

WCS has become one of the world's most respected institutions for climate science on the effects of climate change on biodiversity. In addition:

On Our Work

Climate Adaptation

WCS is making a difference on this around the world.

• In Madagascar, our science on climate change and coral reefs is helping to re-prioritize where government and local communities establish marine protected areas.
• In Papua New Guinea, WCS is assisting small island communities in improving available information on climate change, increasing food security through climate-adapted agricultural practices, and enhancing community-based tools and approaches for climate change adaptation.
• In the western United States, WCS is working to increase habitat connectivity for grizzly bears (a species for which nutritious high-elevation food sources are being impacted by warming temperatures and disease), through restoration of riparian areas that serve as critical movement corridors as bears seek new resources.

Climate Mitigation

We address the causes of climate change primarily by protecting large swaths of tropical forest that would emit CO2 if destroyed.

Through an international approach called REDD+ (Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation) we help governments, forest managers, and local communities to:

• Quantify and value the climate benefits provided by forest conservation.
• Receive payments in recognition of reducing deforestation.
• Re-invest those payments in low-carbon and climate resilient paths to sustainable development.

Trillion Trees

Combining forest protection with the restoration of degraded lands has the potential to deliver up to a third of the climate mitigation action necessary to prevent catastrophic climate change. WCS has recently established a major new initiative to conserve and restore forests in partnership with WWF and Birdlife International. The partnership, called Trillion Trees, will increase the scope and scale of our work on REDD+ and other promising solutions, and leverage greater action on forest restoration through our global network of field projects. The Trillion Trees vision raises our collective ambition and looks beyond a “zero deforestation” future to one where forests and trees are returning on a large scale.