The WCS's Marine Programme envisions a world where marine wildlife thrives in healthy seas, valued by societies that embrace and benefit from the diversity and integrity of life on Earth. We bring together experts in field-based applied science, policy, and finance to design and implement innovative ocean solutions globally. For more information, click here.
The programme is structured around five thematic initiatives:
- AREA-BASED CONSERVATION: WCS ensures that Marine Protected Areas and Other Effective Area-Based Conservation Measures are equitable, created where needed, and sufficiently resourced and effectively managed.
- CORAL REEFS: Coral reefs are some of the most biodiverse strongholds of nature in the world—on land or at sea. Millions of people depend on them, yet they are seriously impacted by a wide range of anthropogenic threats.
- OCEAN GIANTS: Marine mammals are some of the most iconic marine species and hold keystone positions in marine ecosystems that could be irrevocably damaged in their absence.
- SHARKS & RAYS: Sharks and rays are one of the most endangered species groups in the world with over 30% categorized as threatened with extinction.
- SMALL-SCALE FISHERIES: Small-scale fisheries provide livelihoods for more than 100 million women and men and food and crucial nutrients for over four billion, over one billion of whom are low-income.
WCS and the KfW Development Bank are currently implementing a key EU-funded initiative in the Coral Triangle focusing on the development of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) and fisheries management in two areas in Indonesia namely, North Sulawesi and North Maluku. In the Philippines, the project focuses on the province of Palawan and provinces in the south of Mindanao and shall start an initial assessment and scoping. For more information, click here.
WCS also implements the Kiwa Watershed Interventions for Systems Health (WISH+) regional initiative focusing on using nature-based solutions to simultaneously achieve multiple benefits for nature, people and climate in targeted watershed and coral reef areas in the Vatu-i-Ra Seascape in Fiji and the Bismarck-Solomon Seascape in Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands. For more information, click here.
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2023
Workshop on Implementing the new Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF)