Whether it's a First Nations people in Canada, an indigenous community in Guatemala, or an association of landowners in the U.S., societies have always made and enforced rules to protect the species and natural systems they care about. At WCS, we believe protected areas are essential to prevent the loss of endangered species and threatened wild nature. We understand protected areas may limit peoples' access to some natural resources, so we have a moral obligation to avoid adverse impacts and help affected families.

Our Goal

Help people protect the wildlife and natural systems meaningful to them, while ensuring that local families do not unjustly shoulder the costs of establishing and sustainably managing protected areas.

How will we get there?

Many protected areas are too small to ensure the long-term persistence of the species, ecological processes, or even cultural identities they were established to protect. Conserving well managed and permeable corridors to inter-connect these small, isolated protected areas will ensure that together they fulfill their roles effectively.

Less than 7% of the planet's surface remains largely intact, with a full complement of native plants and animals. These intact, best wild places function largely outside the influence of humankind, and are thus our only remaining manuals for nature that are not missing pages or whole chapters. Without them we will never know how to fix the nature we have damaged or replace the nature we have destroyed. Discovering and protecting these last, best wild places is essential.

We look to:

• Assist governments and local communities in planning protected area networks.
• Work with governments and indigenous peoples to develop management plans for protected areas.
• Secure United Nations World Heritage status for protected areas, as this helps local people and national agencies defend against powerful economic forces.
• Ensure local communities see the benefits of conservation—through the Makira Carbon Project in Madagascar, WCS developed unique sharing mechanisms to see that 70% of net revenues were allocated for conservation and grassroots community development projects.