Solutions

Climate Crisis

Our Goal

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

How will we get there?

WCS is implementing conservation programs all over the world to mitigate the impacts of CO2 emissions, and help affected people adapt to climate change:

• We are protecting large swaths of tropical and boreal forest that sequester carbon through our work to protect intact forests and a mechanism called REDD+.
• We are helping to restore degraded forest lands in areas of high conservation significance and where this can bring benefits to local people.
• We partner with local communities and governments to find science-based solutions for adapting to the immediate and projected impacts of climate change.

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.

Read more on REDD+.

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.