The world produces over 400 metric tons of plastic every year today. Single-use plastics—from utensils and straws to soda bottles and packaging—enter our waste stream at an alarming rate. Less than 10 percent of all plastic is recycled.

For Part 6—and the final episode—of our summer series on marine conservation, we investigate the impact of plastic pollution on marine life and steps being taken to reduce single-use plastic consumption at WCS and its home in New York City.  

Reporting: Nat Moss
Guests: Margaret Spring, Niko Radjenovic, Greg Edgar, Chris Durosinmi

Today's episode of WCS Wild Audio is brought to you by our partners at Armitron. Armitron aims to bring awareness and inspire action to help protect marine ecosystems around the world, particularly as it pertains to single-use plastics. Armitron's ocean plastic watches, the Wave and Reef Collections, are crafted from recycled ocean-bound plastic, blending eco-consciousness with impeccable design.

The waters off New York City are some of the busiest in the world with both ships and marine life. In fact, new research co-authored by WCS shows that fin whales can be found in these waters all 12 months. And that has important conservation implications.

Reporting: Dan Rosen
Guests: Carissa King-Nolan, Dr. Melinda Rekdahl

When the Cat Specialist Group of the International Union for Conservation of Nature, or IUCN, met in San Diego in 2019 they were keen to identify fresh insights in jaguar conservation. Delayed due to COVID, the effort got back on track in 2023 and this winter its findings were published. It seemed like a good moment to check in with some of WCS’s leading jaguar conservationists to see how Latin America’s biggest cat is faring.  

Read the IUCN Cat Specialist Group jaguar status report HERE.

Reporting: Nat Moss
Guests: Esteban Payan, Rob Wallace, Mariana da Silva

This week for Endangered Species Day we revisit a report from a year ago by WCS Wild Audio’s Dan Rosen with WCS Vice President for Species Conservation Elizabeth Bennett. The scale of the current species extinction crisis is dangerous and unprecedented, according to experts. Dan talks to Liz about why it demands our attention and what we can all do to stop it.

Reporting: Dan Rosen
Guest: Elizabeth Bennett

WCS supports the government of Belize in the management of two marine reserves in Belize, protected by a dedicated team of local rangers and monitored by experienced local and international scientists.  

Beyond preserving marine ecosystems, their focus extends to supporting the livelihoods of fishing communities there. 

Ralna Kay Lamb Lewis, WCS Belize's Assistant Director, says it's about ensuring that communities—especially women who have often been underrepresented—have the tools to manage resources, ensuring their own incomes and quality of life.
 
Reporting: Hannah Kaplan
Guest: Ralna Kay Lamb Lewis

It’s been over 50 years since the first Earth Day in 1970. As we commemorate this year’s edition, says WCS’s John Calvelli, there is a great deal of concern about our future. But there is also reason for optimism. One example comes from the Miombo Woodlands in Southern Africa. 

Reporting: Dan Rosen
Guest: John Calvelli

April 22 is Earth Day, which could not be a more fitting occasion for conservationists, ministers, and development experts to gather in Bhutan hosted by the Royal Govt of Bhutan, under the Patronage of Her Majesty The Queen, Jetsun Pema Wangchuck. The goal: to develop a long-term plan for sustainable funding to protect tigers across their range.  

To understand the stakes and the opportunity, we turned to several representatives of the global Tiger Conservation Coalition, which includes: the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA), Fauna & Flora, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), Natural State, Panthera, TRAFFIC, the United Nations Development Programme (UNPD), the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), the World Wild Fund for Nature (WWF), and the Zoological Society of London (ZSL).  

Reporting: Nat Moss  
Guests: Stuart Chapman (WWF), John Goodrich (Panthera), Joob Jornburom (WCS), Phurba Lhendup (IUCN), Maxim Vergeichik (UNDP)  

You can follow all the action in Bhutan on Monday, April 22 and Tuesday, April 23 at these streaming links (Bhutan time is GMT +6):  

YouTube
Day 1 (April 22): https://youtube.com/live/UWHhgF0JttA
Day 2 (April 23): https://youtube.com/live/_3dQIcaW6DU   

Facebook: 
https://www.facebook.com/events/1069989520755200/   

The waters off New York City are some of the busiest in the world with both ships and marine life. In fact, new research co-authored by WCS shows that fin whales can be found in these waters all 12 months. And that has important conservation implications.

Reporting: Dan Rosen
Guests: Carissa King-Nolan, Dr. Melinda Rekdahl

Winner of the Conservation Prize at this year’s New York Wild Film Festival, Hamid Sardar’s documentary film Mongolia: Valley of the Bears highlights a clash between the traditions of a nomadic community in northern Mongolia and one dedicated ranger’s mission to conserve wildlife in the boreal “taiga.”

Reporting: Nat Moss
Guest: Hamid Sardar

In the second episode of our two-part series on the current avian influenza crisis, WCS Wild Audio’s Hannah Kaplan looks at the rise of this new, more deadly strain in domestic poultry farming. 

In places like Cambodia, such farms have become a breeding ground for the virus, and the last five years have seen a dramatic increase in rates of infection of wild birds that share the same habitats.  

Meanwhile, scientists continue to track the growing threat to mammals, with the recent transmission to dairy cows in the US causing new concerns of potential new spillover to wildlife and people.

Reporting: Hannah Kaplan
Guests: Dr Emily Denstedt and Robert Tizard

 WCS’s Global Health team has been closely watching the spread of avian influenza—first as it decimated populations of bird species around the world, and more recently when it jumped to mammals. In this two-part series, we look at the potentially devastating impacts of this growing wildlife pandemic and what is being done to slow its spread.

Reporter: Hannah Kaplan
Guests: Dr Christian Walzer, Dr Paulo Colchao

Film Archivist Leopold Krist has been steeped in a century’s worth of WCS history as he catalogues and digitizies historic archive films documenting conservation work globally, and across New York’s zoos and aquariums.  

Thanks to funding from the Leon Levy Foundation, which allowed WCS to create the Shelby White and Leon Levy WCS Archives Film Initiative, he is preserving footage of everything from studies of biomechanics of crabs, to the growth of the Bronx Zoo, to polar research expeditions. 

To see the full catalogue of films, launching in Spring 2024, visit https://library.wcs.org/ 

Reporting: Hannah Kaplan
Guest: Leopold Krist

As top predators, sharks help maintain healthy and productive ocean ecosystems. They also play important roles in coastal livelihoods and food security through fisheries and tourism. But time is running out to save them says Luke Warwick, Director of the WCS Sharks & Rays program. In Part 4 of our WCS Wild Audio marine-themed Summer Series, Luke argues that we must turn recent international policy progress into concrete results to protect these vulnerable species.

To learn more about WCS's shark and ray conservation efforts, follow this link.

Reporting: Dan Rosen
Guest: Luke Warwick

The United Nations Development Programme, or UNDP, works in 170 countries and territories around the world to eradicate poverty and reduce inequality. Not surprisingly, that work aligns in a variety of ways with nature conservation. Leading the UNDP’s Nature Hub is Midori Paxton. WCS Wild Audio checked in with her to discuss the work of the hub and the implementation of its Nature Pledge.

Reporting: Nat Moss
Guest: Midori Paxton

WCS Wild Audio returns for its 4th season on March 6 with a conversation with Midori Paxton, who heads the Nature Hub for the United Nations Development Programme.

During our break, we were thrilled to receive the Audience Honor in both the Podcasts and the Conservation & Preservation categories, and the juried Gold Honor in the Conservation & Preservation category, of the Shorty Impact Awards, which recognize short form digital content for a better world.

As we look to the launch of a new season, check out these highlights from Season 3. You can hear all of our previous episodes at this site and, as always, thanks for listening!

Thanks for joining us for Season 3 of the WCS Wild Audio podcast. We'll be back in a couple weeks with Season 4, featuring all new stories from the Wildlife Conservation Society’s global conservation program, zoos and aquarium, and conservation partners. In the meantime, here are some highlights from our recent conversations with WCS staff and colleagues working across the planet to protect wildlife and wild places.

Many people think of the Amazon as this vast, highly intact tropical forest, but it is also the largest freshwater system in the world. It’s the most biologically diverse place on Earth. Home to hundreds of Indigenous Peoples and traditional cultures. And also, two important species of catfish. Those will be up for discussion at the upcoming Convention on Migratory Species meeting. This is a special episode of the WCS Wild Audio podcast. We'll be back soon with our 4th season.

Reporting: Dan Rosen, Hannah Kaplan
Guests: Mariana Montoya, Susan Lieberman

This week representatives from across the globe are gathering in Dubai for the 28th Conference of the Parties, or COP, of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. The Wildlife Conservation Society will have representatives there focused on issues essential to addressing the climate crisis that range from preserving ecological integrity to the empowerment of Indigenous peoples. WCS President and CEO Monica Medina leads the delegation and spoke with Wild Audio for this report.

Reporting: Nat Moss
Guest: Monica Medina

For too many species, the rise of social media has created a growing market for the illegal smuggling and possession of wildlife. In the case of the Mexican spider monkey, whose status is Endangered on the Red List of threatened species maintained by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, the growth of the illegal pet trade into the United States has reached a crisis point. In the conclusion to our third season, WCS Wild Audio wanted to find out what’s driving this trade and how conservationists are responding.

Reporting: Nat Moss
Guest: Keith Lovett

Protected and conserved areas across the globe safeguard critical biodiversity, contribute to local economies, and support U.S. development and foreign policy objectives. But too often they are underfunded. Making its way through the congress now is a bill that would leverage U.S. funding with philanthropic contributions to provide sustainable financing for protected areas. In this episode we hear from WCS’s John Calvelli and two Senate allies to learn more.

Reporting: Nat Moss
Guests: John Calvelli, U.S. Sen. Chris Coons, U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham

WCS researchers are embarking on a two-year study of Covid transmission in Alaskan wildlife. Working closely with Indigenous Communities, the team is on a mission to better understand the overlap between human, environmental, and animal health. In doing so, they can get a better sense of the “big picture” of how pathogens develop, jump between species and ultimately, how we can avoid the next global pandemic.

Reporting: Hannah Kaplan
Guest: Sarah Olson

Small Scale fisheries are the cornerstone of livelihoods and economies across the world, providing essential micronutrients to more than 4 billion people. What's more, they also employ over 150 million people in the industry, the majority of whom live in the Global South, and are most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change.

Wild Audio's Hannah Kaplan sat down with WCS's Hoyt Peckham, Director of Community fisheries, who manages a team supporting 30 Country programs as they work to achieve a more sustainable and equitable approach to managing our marine resources.

Keep an eye out for additional WCS Wild Audio stories about sustainable fisheries, with insights and solutions from the communities who manage them, in Season 4.

Reporting: Hannah Kaplan
Guest: Hoyt Peckham

During New York's Climate Week, WCS is exploring bold approaches to the growing climate crisis in a three-part series. In our final episode, we look at REDD+ and market-driven approaches to forest conservation.

WCS Executive Director of Markets, Todd Stevens, wants to find sustainable, financially viable incentives for protecting nature. Linking field-based conservation to private sector funding under the REDD+ framework, his goal is to use capital to ensure positive, environmentally friendly economic development in and around conservation sites.

This model rewards restoration and protection of the environment, ultimately linking healthy ecosystems to healthy economies. At the heart of this markets-based approach, says Todd, lie at-risk forests, which absorb harmful Co2 emissions. Hannah Kaplan has the story.

Reporting: Hannah Kaplan
Guest: Todd Stevens

Small Scale fisheries are the cornerstone of livelihoods and economies across the world, providing essential micronutrients to more than 4 billion people. What's more, they also employ over 150 million people in the industry, the majority of whom live in the Global South, and are most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. 

In Part 3 of our marine-themed summer series, Wild Audio's Hannah Kaplan talks to WCS's Hoyt Peckham, Director of Community fisheries, who manages a team supporting 30 Country programs as they work to achieve a more sustainable and equitable approach to managing our marine resources.

Reporting: Hannah Kaplan
Guest: Hoyt Peckham

During New York's Climate Week, WCS is exploring bold approaches to the growing climate crisis in a three-part series. In Part 2, we look at the need for anticipating, and adapting to, a changing climate.

The most important thing we can do to address climate change is reduce our greenhouse gas emissions. Protecting intact nature can also be a big part of the solution. But let’s say we do those things and we manage to constrain climate change. What type of world will be left for us to live in, if we don't intentionally change our conservation strategies now? That’s where climate adaptation has a part to play.

Reporting: Dan Rosen
Guests: Liz Tully, Paul Elsen

In anticipation of New York Climate Week taking place later this month during the 78th Session of the UN General Assembly, WCS Wild Audio presents the first in a 3-part series exploring forward-thinking approaches to the growing climate crisis. For Part 1, we look at why maintaining the ecological integrity of forests is so important and what can be done both to avoid further degradation and restore what’s been lost.

Reporting: Nat Moss
Guests: Tom Evans, Kemen Austin

At a time when 80 percent of the world’s forests have been degraded for agriculture and other human activities, a new approach is taking shape in Cambodia’s Northern Plains.

There, an initiative to support sustainable rice production is reducing deforestation and helping to protect endangered bird species like the giant and white-shouldered ibis.

The WCS-managed Ibis Rice links jasmine rice farmers to international consumer markets to achieve environmental protection and fairtrade prices to local communities.

For more information on Ibis Rice and its products, visit: https://ibisrice.com/

Reporting: Hannah Kaplan
Guest: Nicholas Spencer and Keo Socheat

While shark incidents with people are statistically very rare, each event understandably creates fear among beachgoers contemplating a swim in the ocean. Nothing has influenced the public’s attitude toward sharks more than the 1975 film Jaws. WCS Life Trustee Allison Maher Stern was the model for the swimmer in the film’s famously provocative marketing campaign. WCS Wild Audio recently caught up with her to ask about that historic modeling job half a century ago, and how it has affected her life since then.

Reporting: Nat Moss
Guest: Allison Maher Stern

The 5 Great Forests from Mexico to Colombia contain 7.5 percent of the world’s biodiversity and support five million people. One of the iconic species there is the scarlet macaw. In Guatemala, protecting these bright red birds from habitat destruction and poaching for the pet trade is a major challenge. The WCS team there has taken an interesting approach.

Reporting: Dan Rosen
Guests: Rony Garcia, Gabriela Ponce Santizo, Jeremy Radachowsky

August 10 is World Lion Day. To learn more about how these majestic felines are doing across their range in Africa, and how WCS is working to conserve them, we turned to WCS’s chief big cat expert and his colleagues in Uganda, where anti-poaching efforts and community-based conservation to reduce human-wildlife conflict are part of a larger strategy to recover lion populations across east and central Africa.

Reporting: Nat Moss
Guests: Luke Hunter, Joshua Mabonga, Caroline Twahebwa

The 31st International Congress for Conservation Biology is happening this week. It’s a meaningful event. For only the second time in its history, ICCB is being held in Africa—in Kigali, Rwanda. WCS has a big presence there, which includes over 40 young conservationists from across the continent. WCS Wild Audio’s Dan Rosen spoke with WCS senior conservationist Tony Lynam about the significance.

As top predators, sharks help maintain healthy and productive ocean ecosystems. They also play important roles in coastal livelihoods and food security through fisheries and tourism. But time is running out to save them, says WCS’s Luke Warwick. We must turn recent international progress into concrete results. Ahead of Shark and Ray Awareness Day, WCS Wild Audio’s Dan Rosen spoke with Luke for the latest.

At its annual gala, the Wildlife Conservation Society recently honored Carlos Manuel Rodríguez, the CEO and Chair of the Global Environment Facility, or GEF. WCS Wild Audio’s Nat Moss sat down with Carlos Manuel to discuss his long career of conservation leadership, the work of the GEF, and the extraordinary example set by Rodríguez’s home country of Costa Rica for environmental stewardship, climate change mitigation, and biodiversity protection.

Thanks for joining us for Season Two of WCS Wild Audio. We'll be back soon with new stories from the Wildlife Conservation Society’s field sites, zoos and aquarium, and conservation partners. In the meantime, check out some of the highlights of our conversations with WCS staff from across the world working to protect wildlife and wild places.

“With all this strangeness, there is also beauty beyond words.” That’s how the famous scientist and explorer William Beebe described an underwater marvel off the coast of New York and New Jersey in the late 1920s. In Part 2 of our marine-themed summer series, we return to the Hudson Canyon, which has been nominated as a U.S. National Marine Sanctuary. As WCS Wild Audio’s Dan Rosen learned from Noah Chesnin and Dr. Merry Camhi, there’s still a lot we don’t know about this massive canyon.  

Reporting: Dan Rosen
Guests: Noah Chesnin, Merry Camhi

This week, the Wildlife Conservation Society welcomes a new president and CEO, Monica Medina. She arrives from the US State Department, where through this April she served as Assistant Secretary of State for Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs, and was the nation’s first Special Envoy for Biodiversity and Water Resources.

WCS is thrilled to have at its helm a new leader with vast experience and a passion for conservation. Wild Audio’s Nat Moss recently caught up with her as she steps into her new role.

Thanks for joining us for Season Two of WCS Wild Audio. We'll be back soon with new stories from the Wildlife Conservation Society’s field sites, zoos and aquarium, and conservation partners. In the meantime, check out some of the highlights of our conversations with WCS staff from across the world working to protect wildlife and wild places.

You may have heard about the large scale of the current species extinction crisis. It’s unprecedented and dangerous according to experts. For Endangered Species Day on May 19, Wild Audio's Dan Rosen talks to WCS’s Elizabeth Bennett about why it matters and what we can all do to stop it.

Thanks for joining us for Season Two of WCS Wild Audio. We'll be back soon with new stories from the Wildlife Conservation Society’s field sites, zoos and aquarium, and conservation partners. In the meantime, check out some of the highlights of our conversations with WCS staff from across the world working to protect wildlife and wild places.

Thanks for joining us for Season Two of WCS Wild Audio. We'll be back soon with new stories from the Wildlife Conservation Society’s field sites, zoos and aquarium, and conservation partners. In the meantime, check out some of the highlights of our conversations with WCS staff from across the world working to protect wildlife and wild places.


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In November 2021, the Wildlife Conservation Society launched a new campaign to address the crisis of climate change called Framing Our Future. The effort was premised on partnerships with a wide range of civic, cultural, and academic institutions across the United States. One of those partners, the Bronx’s Fordham University, has embraced the campaign as part of its own Green Plan to live out the inspirational call to protect nature found in Pope Francis’s 2015 Laudato si’ encyclical.

Subsistence fishing has long been a staple of Malagasy culture. The rich biodiversity that makes Madagascar so famous also underpins local economies, providing not only food, but income through for-profit fishing and tourism.

However, a host of threats are not only putting pressure on ecosystems, but the very communities who are so intrinsically tied to them. Ravaka Ranaivoson, Marine Conservation Director for WCS Madagascar, believes that the solution lies in supporting “natural capital” – training communities to identify and manage natural resources for healthy, sustainable economies.

Wild Audio’s Hannah Kaplan spoke with Ravaka about the challenges, and opportunities, in working to protect the country’s rich ecosystems.

Read the transcript of this epsiode here.

For over 125 years, the Wildlife Conservation Society has been protecting species and their habitats across the globe—all the while inspiring visitors to care about conservation at the Bronx Zoo and WCS’s other wildlife parks in New York City. Recording those efforts is the focus of the WCS Library and Archives. WCS Wild Audio’s Nat Moss recently spoke to archive director Madeleine Thompson to learn how she and her team are working to preserve a rich and dynamic history.

Learn more about the WCS Library and Archives at library.wcs.org. You can purchase mugs, t-shirts, hats, pillows, shower curtains and other items with illustrations from the WCS Department of Tropical Research at the WCS Archive Red Bubble online shop: www.redbubble.com/people/wcs-archives/shop.

At the heart of the University of Cambridge sits a collaborative center which is changing the way that organizations and academic institutions work together to address immediate environmental challenges. The Cambridge Conservation Initiative (CCI) is an innovative approach, bringing together 11 leading NGOs and world-class researchers in one creative hub. It’s mission? To change how we approach science-based conservation models.

Hannah Kaplan spoke to Executive Director of CCI, Dr Mike Maunder, to learn more.

To learn more about CCI, visit www.cambridgeconservation.org

We need to act fast to address the three interrelated crises facing our planet—climate change, biodiversity loss, and the threat of zoonotic pandemics. We must not only protect the last of the wild, but also actively restore wildlife and wild places. WCS Wild Audio recently spoke with John Lotspeich, Executive Director of Trillion Trees— a conservation partnership attempting to meet the scale needed at this critical time.

To learn more about Trillion Trees, read their 2022 Impact Report.

Season 4 of WCS Wild Audio is in the books. Today we begin a summer series highlighting marine conservation stories. First up, our interview with WCS Life Trustee Allison Maher Stern, who was the model for the swimmer in the famously provocative marketing campaign for Steven Spielberg’s 1975 blockbuster film Jaws.   

While shark incidents with people are statistically very rare, each event understandably creates fear among beachgoers contemplating a swim in the ocean. Nothing has influenced the public’s attitude toward sharks more than Jaws. WCS Wild Audio caught up with Allison to ask about her historic modeling job half a century ago and why sharks need our conservation support now more than ever.  

Reporting: Nat Moss
Guest: Allison Maher Stern

This week a 25-minute documentary, “Haulout,” will headline the New York Wild Film Festival as its Best in Festival winner. That prize can be added to prestigious awards for “Haulout” from the International Documentary Association and the American Film Institute on its way to the Academy Awards, where it competes for best documentary short on March 12.

WCS Wild Audio spoke to representatives of the film, the festival, and WCS’s scientific programs to learn more. Watch the film at The New Yorker.

[NOTE: This episode contains spoilers].

Jaguars are the Americas’ mightiest big cat, with roughly 150,000 of this extraordinary species scattered across its range from southern Arizona to northern Argentina. Today they face a growing threat from the illegal wildlife trade in their teeth, skin, and other parts. Wild Audio recently spoke to Kurt Duchez, the Counter-Wildlife Trafficking Officer for the WCS Mesoamerica region, to learn about the scope of the problem and what can be done to confront it.

“With all this strangeness, there is also beauty beyond words.” That’s how the famous scientist and explorer William Beebe described an underwater marvel off the coast of New York and New Jersey in the late 1920s. Today, Hudson Canyon has been nominated as a National Marine Sanctuary. But, as WCS Wild Audio learned from Noah Chesnin and Dr. Merry Camhi, there’s still a lot we don’t know about this massive canyon.

We're taking a break from WCS Wild Audio this week to share a new podcast, "Wild World with Scott Solomon," hosted by field biologist and science communicator Scott Solomon. The show explores the natural wonders of our planet through the voices of the people who explore, study, and protect them.

In today’s episode, you’ll join Scott as he speaks with WCS's own Dr Boris Arevalo, who is working to protect the spectacular scarlet macaw in his home country of Belize. Dr Arevalo's efforts to study this beautiful bird and reintroduce hand-reared chicks back into the wild have contributed to a resurgence in scarlet macaw populations in the region.

If you like what you hear, follow "Wild World with Scott Solomon" on Apple Podcasts or your favorite podcast app. We’ll be back next week with a new episode of WCS Wild Audio.

https://www.wildworldshow.com/