New Study Reveals Persistent Illegal Trade in Protected Sharks with Calls to Strengthen World’s Wildlife-Trade Treaty to Prevent Extinctions. @wcs.org @fiu.bsky.social 🎥: Byron Dilkes 🎥: Open Planet Studios | Silverback Films

Despite over a decade of international protections, a widespread illegal trade in CITES-listed sharks remains, a new WCS co-authored study reveals. Upcoming #CITESCoP20 is an opportunity to address. 🌎 newsroom.wcs.org/News-Release...

TUNE IN: Join us at 6 pm ET live on Instagram and hear from WCS's @jonathanslaght.com on his new book, Tigers Between Empires. 🌏 Check out the book: us.macmillan.com/books/978037...

‼️ Giant manta off the coast of New York and New Jersey. About 10 feet across. A team of WCS scientists from the New York Aquarium recently spotted it on a research trip to #HudsonCanyon. 🌎 Help us protect the canyon: secure.wcs.org/campaign/hud...

COMMENTARY: Don’t write off corals just yet, say Melissa Wright of Bloomberg Philanthropies and WCS’s @emilysdarling.bsky.social. While many reefs are struggling, others still have the capacity to survive and adapt, our science shows. 🌎 oceanographicmagazine.com/features/viv...

It's #OneHealthDay! Protecting and restoring nature's integrity is essential to addressing today's polycrisis, which includes biodiversity loss, the climate emergency, and systemic health threats. @wcs.org #OneHealth

On #NationalBisonDay, the bison offers a fitting lesson, writes WCS’s John Calvelli for the @nydailynews.com. One about “resilience, patience, and the possibility of second chances.” 🌎 www.nydailynews.com/2025/11/01/o...

“Science is at the heart of WCS. It’s at the heart of my own identity as a scholar.” Recently, we welcomed Adam Falk as our new WCS president and CEO. Hear from him on a new episode of #WCSWildAudio. 🌎 🔊 apple.co/4nQLFUJ

NEWS: WCS and Gabon announce new partnership for protected area management. Part of Gabon’s new policy to diversify management models, foster innovative solutions for sustainable financing, and facilitate sharing of technical expertise with conservation partners. 🌍 newsroom.wcs.org/News-Release...

First review is in: WCS’s @jonathanslaght.com shines a “scientific-yet-soulful spotlight on one of the world’s most amazing creatures” in his new book, Tigers Between Empires. The book, out Tuesday, Nov. 4, details WCS’s tiger conservation work. 🌏 🐅 www.startribune.com/jonathan-sla...

If shark and ray protections pass at the upcoming #CITESCOP20, our work will be just beginning. Next step: helping countries implement these trade restrictions at the national and local level, says @lukedavid301.bsky.social. 🌏 www.wcs.org/cites

Upcoming #CITESCoP20 meeting matters for the conservation of sharks and rays. Listings from past events were proven difference makers, say WCS's @lukedavid301.bsky.social and Dana Tricarico. www.wcs.org/cites-cop20 🌏

The Tropical Forest Forever Facility is set to launch at #COP30 in Brazil. We are proud to support it, to make this not just a success for Brazil but for the world, says WCS's Joe Walston. tfff.earth 🌎

International trade protections from CITES have proven valuable to helping sharks and rays in the past. The upcoming #CITESCoP20 meeting is a major opportunity to make further progress, says WCS's @lukedavid301.bsky.social. wcs.org/cites-cop20 🌏

Proud to collaborate with @cornellbirds.bsky.social on a project to develop cutting-edge bioacoustic technology to advance conservation monitoring in the Global South. Big 🙏 to @bezosearthfund.org for $1.8M grant, announced yesterday, to support this work. 🌎 www.birds.cornell.edu/home/bezos-e...

Proud to be one of 15 global teams awarded funding through the @bezosearthfund.org’s AI for Climate and Nature Grand Challenge. We’re advancing foundational AI models for coral reef monitoring and inviting divers and citizen scientists everywhere to join the effort. 🪸 bit.ly/4oxMguW

It's #InternationalSnowLeopardDay. Last month, WCS teams and partners from across High Asia gathered in Mongolia, one of the snow leopard’s strongholds, to shape a shared vision for the next decade of conservation. Today, we honor this effort to protect the snow leopard across this landscape. 🌏

NEWS: New @blueactionfund.org project launches to secure a “sustho sagor” (healthy ocean) for Bangladesh. $5.5M partnership with WCS and WorldFish will expand Bangladesh’s Marine Protected Area network and strengthen community-led ocean stewardship. 🌏 newsroom.wcs.org/News-Release...

The health sector must integrate nature into the growing climate and health movement, say Neil Vora and WCS's @cwalzer.bsky.social. Without doing so, they argue, the movement will fail to meet its mandate to save lives. 🌍 www.statnews.com/2025/10/20/b...

📢 Calling all early-career conservationists: Applications are open for the Conservation Leadership Programme 2026 Future Conservationist Awards! ⬇️

🪸 Yesterday, we shared a story from Fiji that shows coral resilience is real. It also raises a question: Where else can reefs survive and recover in a rapidly warming world? 🌏

We are standing at a tipping point, but also at the edge of a powerful opportunity #ForCoral. Coral reefs are under unprecedented stress. But this is not the end of the story. New research co-authored by WCS shows that some reefs can still recover, even after catastrophic damage. bit.ly/47ojYfG 🌏

Synthetic biology shows promise for helping species. The decision at last week’s #IUCNcongress to endorse case-by-case decision-making on it was important, writes WCS’s Dr. Elizabeth Bennett. 🌍 www.context.news/nature/opini...

At #IUCNcongress, WCS's Madhu Rao was re-elected as Chair of the World Commission on Protected Areas. In this role, Rao has strengthened the global protected area workforce, integrated One Health principles, developed strategies for Antarctica and the Southern Ocean, and more.

LISTEN: On #WCSWildAudio, five clans in Papua New Guinea’s Eastern Highlands have come together to formally protect 2,000 hectares of ancestral forest. Safeguarding biodiversity while preserving their cultural traditions. 🔊 apple.co/4of1Mvy

We are celebrating a highly successful #IUCNcongress that concluded today in Abu Dhabi. Pivotal progress was made on critical issues at the world’s largest convening of conservation practitioners, which is held once every four years. 🌍 newsroom.wcs.org/News-Release...

“There’s a tendency to react to new technology with fear,” WCS’s Dr. Susan Lieberman tells @npr.org. At the #IUCNcongress, we hailed the adoption of Motion 87, which instead establishes a responsible, science-based policy framework on synthetic biology. 🔊 www.npr.org/2025/10/14/n...

We cannot afford to reject tools that could help safeguard both people and nature. At #IUCNcongress, after intense debate, IUCN members just adopted Motion 87, which establishes a responsible, science-based policy framework on synthetic biology. 🌍 newsroom.wcs.org/News-Release...

At #IUCNcongress, WCS’s Dr. John G. Robinson was awarded IUCN Honorary Membership, the Union's highest distinction. “Through his leadership at WCS and his lifelong engagement with IUCN, John has helped define the modern conservation movement,” said WCS President and CEO Adam Falk. 🌍 bit.ly/3WBlsxU

A key question at the #IUCNCongress: how can countries deliver on the pledge to conserve 30% of the planet? One of the clearest answers may have just come from the Republic of Congo, write Arlette Soudan-Nonault and WCS’s Christopher Holmes. 🌍 Read more: medium.com/communities-...

All three oceanic devil rays are now Critically Endangered, according to the IUCN Red List, including spinetail devil rays like this. We will be advocating for them at the upcoming #CITESCoP20. Devil rays are among the group of sharks and rays up for stronger protections.

“An essential step.” Today, members at the #IUCNCongress adopted Motion 108, which will bring global attention to the wildlife pet trade, an urgent, but often overlooked, crisis. 🌍 bit.ly/4oacyTO

IUCN Resolution 90, adopted in 2020, declared the jaguar a conservation priority for the Americas. At #IUCNcongress yesterday, experts spoke about its implementation.

At the #IUCNcongress, we are supporting Motion 87, which would establish a responsible, science-based policy framework on synthetic biology. We are urging delegates to reject Motion 133, which calls for a sweeping moratorium on the use of such technologies.

A new IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas report, co-authored by WCS and launched at #IUCNcongress, offers compelling case studies on how to achieve large-scale conservation in an increasingly complex world. bit.ly/478ALTS

At the #IUCNCongress, two measures on synthetic biology have drawn significant attention. Their outcome matters for anyone who cares about how science and ethics will guide responses to environmental, agricultural, and public health challenges in the decades to come, says WCS’s Dr. Susan Lieberman.

A new IUCN Green Status Assessment, co-authored by WCS, reveals that both lion subspecies remain Largely Depleted. Intensified conservation over the next century could restore lions to more of their former range. #IUCNcongress

Rangers are on the frontlines of conservation, protecting our natural and cultural heritage for the benefit of all. Today at #IUCNcongress, with our partners, we proudly reaffirmed our commitment to the Universal Ranger Support Alliance, which advocates for and supports rangers around the world. 🌍

Carolina Alba Ferreras is the first woman to direct the Dominican Republic’s system of protected areas (SINAP). At the #IUCNcongress, she announced that the country is becoming the 5th to sign the Women Ocean Guardians commitment. 🌎 🌊 Learn more: womenoceanguardians.org

Tigers are Critically Depleted, says the species’ first IUCN Green Status of Species Assessment. But conservation has prevented even greater losses and provides hope for recovery. 🌏 bit.ly/4n2seb0 #IUCNcongress

Nature is on the agenda at the #IUCNcongress but so are the rangers that protect it. Rangers need holistic welfare support to deal with stress and mental health issues, said WCS’s Michel Masozera at an event with the International Ranger Federation, WWF, and the Unviersal Ranger Support Alliance.

One reason why I was excited to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Arcturus expedition by joining the livestream at @wcs.org's CPZ of the NOAA research cruise in #HudsonCanyon with contemporary artists is because 25 years ago I was on a deep sea expedition in #PNG with my own box of watercolors

Our recently launched 2025–2030 Coral Reef Conservation Strategy is a plan to conserve the most climate-resilient reefs. bit.ly/4n0C3WV It’s the work of 70+ experts in 18 countries, linking our science, partnerships, policy, and community work into a shared vision.

NEWS: The One Health and environmental crime motions were among 97 motions adopted at the #IUCNcongress, said WCS's Dr. Susan Lieberman in recapping Day 1. Read more: bit.ly/4nG3ZQN 🌍

How can marine conservation better reflect and support the needs of local people? WCS's Stacy Jupiter is co-author of the new Guidebook for Assessing and Improving Social Equity in Marine Conservation. Check it out: portals.iucn.org/library/node... 🌏

Enhanced monitoring, early detection, rapid response. Critical to addressing Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza. Today at #IUCNcongress, WCS’s Dr. Sarah Olson spoke about WCS’s experience addressing HPAI in places like Peru and Cambodia and the need for sustainable wildlife health surveillance. 🌍

How the Queens Zoo is helping to save a New England rabbit, writes the @nytimes.com. The New England cottontail population has shrunk by more than 80 percent since the 1960s. 🌎 www.nytimes.com/2025/10/08/n...

At the #IUCNcongress, a motion on One Health, developed and championed by WCS and its partners, is poised to be adopted. “WCS’s health and field teams have seen firsthand how human well-being depends on the integrity of nature,” said WCS's Dr. Sarah Olson. 🌍 newsroom.wcs.org/News-Release...

Tomorrow, the IUCN Congress begins and IUCN is poised to quickly pass a motion aimed at curtailing crimes impacting the environment. It’s “an opportunity to align science, policy, and action in defense of nature and people,” says WCS's Joe Walston. Read more: newsroom.wcs.org/News-Release...

New global guidelines are needed to rein in the wildlife pet trade, writes WCS's Elizabeth Bennett. Global biodiversity is under unprecedented threat and the scale of the trade is staggering. Starting this week, the #IUCNcongress is a platform to act. 🌍 news.mongabay.com/2025/10/new-...