WCS.org

What We Are Thankful For

This has been a year like no other, and I can’t thank you enough for standing with WCS and staying focused on what’s at stake for wildlife and wild places around the world. We have hope for the future because of your strong support for our mission—and because of what we accomplished with that support over the past year.

Thanks to you, we were able to continue caring for our more than 17,000 animals while our four zoos and aquarium were closed during New York City’s lockdown—including these playful lynx cubs that made their public debut at the Queens Zoo in September. We also brought digital education programs to children studying from home during the pandemic.

Also thanks to you, our field teams in 60 countries were able to protect hard-won conservation gains in the face of pandemic-related threats. To give just one example, we helped defend Central America’s five great forests from wildfires and illegal land grabs—and even released 26 young scarlet macaws into the wild in partnership with local communities, in order to begin rebuilding their populations.

And with your support, WCS has advanced wildlife health and nature-based climate solutions, and combatted wildlife trafficking. Our teams are helping strengthen wildlife trade policies in order to prevent future pandemics, and securing the long-term protection of carbon-rich intact forests across the Americas, Africa, and Asia.

I hope you enjoy reading more highlights of WCS’s impact below, none of which would have been possible without your partnership.

Best wishes to you and your family for a happy and healthy Thanksgiving.

Stopping elephant poaching

This year, WCS helped stop the decline of East Africa’s largest elephant population across Tanzania’s Ruaha-Katavi landscape; we also halted poaching of Nigeria’s largest remaining elephant population in Yankari Game Reserve. WCS works in more elephant landscapes than any other conservation organization, and elephant populations have stabilized or increased in areas throughout Africa where WCS has ensured long-term, effective site management and the necessary resources, anti-poaching systems, and training.

Ending wildlife crime

In August, following more than three years of work by WCS’s Wildlife Crime Unit in cooperation with Congolese authorities, a notorious poacher and ivory trafficker in the Republic of Congo was sentenced to 30 years in prison for attempted murder of park rangers, ivory trafficking, and other charges. This strict sentencing is sending a strong deterrent signal to other wildlife criminals in northern Congo, showing them they will be prosecuted at the highest levels.

Strengthening protections for jaguars, sharks, and other species

In February, WCS helped secure stronger formal protections for the jaguar across its vast range, and also led the push for stronger international trade protections for 18 highly vulnerable shark and ray species—wins that were essential as jaguars, sharks, and rays are all increasingly threatened by poaching. Our experts on the ground support communities and governments in enforcing these protections and helping at-risk species recover. In the US, we have also been advocating to maintain strong, effective protections for endangered species.

Creating virtual learning experiences

WCS’s conservation educators quickly pivoted in the spring to create innovative virtual learning experiences and resources for thousands of teachers, parents, and students—inside and outside NYC. Our educational online summer camp reached more than 1,200 children in 30 states, and we supported over 500 virtual internships for young people, ensuring that the youth in our community remained engaged with continued access to career and science enrichment resources.

Launching a virtual zoo

We shared glimpses of daily life at our parks and other activities to bring some joy to an anxious public. Live camera feeds broadcast lemurs, sea lions, and little penguins at the Bronx Zoo, as well as otters, sharks, and other marine life at the New York Aquarium. “Zoodles,” or zoo doodles, delighted families with instructions on how to draw a red panda, a shark, a bison, and more. And we shared “moments of zen” and updates from our essential staff caring for the animals.

Opening the new Spineless exhibit at the New York Aquarium

When our parks reopened this summer, we opened an otherworldly new exhibit at the New York Aquarium. Spineless takes visitors on an educational journey though the weird and wonderful world of jellyfish, lobsters, crabs, and other marine invertebrates.

Growing the Bronx Zoo’s bison herd

WCS’s Bronx Zoo is increasing awareness about bison conservation and establishing a large herd of bison, also known as buffalo, for eventual introduction into North American landscapes. Eight calves have been born since April, helping build a genetically diverse, healthy population of bison to re-wild the Great Plains.

Supporting communities in and around our field sites

We are protecting our hard-won conservation gains in the face of increased poaching and other threats caused by the pandemic’s ripple effects across our field sites—by providing vital supplies, livelihood assistance, and strong overall support to our community-led teams, frontline rangers, and conservationists.

Connecting the dots between the health of people, animals, and the environment

WCS and German leaders brought together the world’s top minds in public health and wildlife health just months before the pandemic hit to develop the Berlin Principles for One Health aimed at unifying and strengthening global efforts to prevent the emergence or resurgence of diseases that threaten humans and animals.

Harnessing science and policy to help prevent future pandemics

WCS released a special report demonstrating the strong links between the destruction of intact nature and emerging infectious diseases. In a forceful policy statement, we called for stopping all commercial trade in wildlife for human consumption, particularly of birds and mammals, and closing all wildlife markets; we continue to support subsistence hunting for household consumption and cultural identity by Indigenous Peoples and local communities. And we recently pushed to make the future safer for humanity and for animals through support of the Preventing Future Pandemics Act.

Protecting carbon-rich intact forests

WCS is advancing a global initiative to mobilize conservation of the planet’s 1 billion hectares of intact forests by 2030. Recently, WCS secured major new victories for intact forest protection in Central Africa, Canada, and Indonesia. For example, in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s Okapi-Kahuzi-Biega stronghold—home to elephants, gorillas, and other rare wildlife—we are establishing new, stronger legal measures to protect 50,000 square kilometers of forests through public-private partnerships and more robust land tenure rights for community-managed lands.

Helping vulnerable species, ecosystems, and communities adapt

Around the world, WCS is helping people, ecosystems, and species adapt to the impacts of climate change. For example, WCS discovered a new colony of Magellanic penguins on a remote Argentinian island, which is advancing our understanding of how animals are shifting their ranges in response to climate change—and this knowledge will help us respond to threats and advocate for stronger marine protections in the Patagonian Sea. Globally, our teams are working to protect at least 50 coral reefs that are projected to be less vulnerable to climate impacts and can repopulate other reefs over time—feeding into our larger goal of working with the global community to protect 30 percent of our oceans by 2030.