Our goal is to reduce wildlife trafficking to levels where populations of endangered, threatened, or otherwise protected species are no longer threatened by commercial poaching.
We do this working in close partnership with governments, Indigenous People and local communities, and civil society groups. At WCS, we support our partners to develop and implement highly focused, evidence-based strategies informed by an in-depth understanding of the dynamics of wildlife trafficking and the people involved to reduce the profits of crime, whilst simultaneously increasing the risks of being caught.
We work closely with government partners to counter wildlife trafficking in more than half of the 60+ countries where we have programs, including major source, transit and consumer countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America.
We are growing our CWT capabilities across the globe with dedicated in-country staff teams with relevant CWT knowledge and expertise (e.g., data science, intelligence gathering and analysis, enforcement, policy, training, and capacity building) to ensure that our interventions are successful and cost-effective.
We have over 100 years of translating field conservation work into policy change at the national and international levels.
WCS focuses on a suite of species that are of high commercial value, protected under national law or international treaties, and where we bring specific expertise and add value to ongoing efforts. Our efforts focus on African and Asian elephants; pangolins; big cats including tigers, lions, snow leopards, jaguars, pumas, and cheetahs; tortoises and freshwater turtles; helmeted hornbills; cage birds such as parrots and macaws; and sharks and rays.
WCS works to counter wildlife trafficking of these species in about 30 countries in Asia, Africa, Latin America, North America and Europe—over half of the 50+ countries where we are engaging in field conservation action.
