Wildlife Conservation Society

2009 Health as an ES Workshop (New York, USA)

December 3-4, 2009, Bronx Zoo, New York, USA. Workshop convened to examine the question of ‘health as an ecosystem service’and to create framework for identifying opportunities for innovative finance/public support for the conservation of ecosystems that directly provide human health services. The event was hosted by the Wildlife Conservation Society with support for USAID through the TransLinks cooperative agreement.

TransLinks Annual Report FY09 TransLinks Annual Report FY09

The TransLinks project (short for Promoting Transformation: Linking Natural Resources, Economic Growth, and Good Governance) was designed to explore the relationships among good governance, poverty alleviation, conservation, and the sustainable management of natural resources

Wildlife Friendly Enterprise Network: Anne Kent Taylor Fund Wildlife Friendly Enterprise Network: Anne Kent Taylor Fund

Wildlife Friendly Enterprise Network Brief - Anne Kent Taylor Fund. Anne Kent Taylor Fund helps individuals, communities and corporations to conserve, protect and restore biodiversity in Kenya through sound economic activities that are ecologically sustainable.

Wildlife Friendly Enterprise Network: Aroma Forest Essential Oils Wildlife Friendly Enterprise Network: Aroma Forest Essential Oils

Aroma Forest produces a range of essenti als oils. International cosmetic and aromatherapy companies such as Chanel and Yves Rocher purchase these products from the company. Aroma Forest products are not only Certified Wildlife Friendly™ but are also certified organic and satisfy international fair trade requirements. Aroma Forest markets through the Internet as well as through nati onal and international retail and wholesale sales.

Wildlife Friendly Enterprise Network: Elephant Pepper Wildlife Friendly Enterprise Network: Elephant Pepper

Elephant Pepper aims to promote the livelihood of farmers living in elephant range through training, the deployment of appropriate conflict mitigation methods and development of agricultural techniques which promote elephant conservation.

Challenges to Establishing Payments for Ecosystem Services in Gabon: A Case study of the Mbé River Basin Challenges to Establishing Payments for Ecosystem Services in Gabon: A Case study of the Mbé River Basin

WCS is working with the Government of Gabon on a new Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES) initiative to secure long-term protection of the high conservation value of the Mbé watershed in Gabon. The project is exploring ways to remunerate these upstream land managers for maintaining their land-use practices to secure the continued provision of a year round supply of high quality water. More broadly, the project also aims to address key barriers to developing sustainable PES mechanisms in Gabon and is being designed to maximize lesson learning and replicability.

Elephant Pepper: Establishing Conservation-Focused Business Elephant Pepper: Establishing Conservation-Focused Business

This case study examines the development of a commercial product at the intersection of biodiversity conservation, economic development and improvement in the livelihoods of poor African farmers. It shows how a market-based initiative can drive positive change.

Improving Poultry Production for Sustainability in the Ruaha Landscape, Tanzania Improving Poultry Production for Sustainability in the Ruaha Landscape, Tanzania

Shortages in protein availability are a well-known problem in village economies, especially in Africa, and the neurological and nutritional importance of animal-source protein is increasingly being recognized. A Newcastle disease vaccination program for chickens was undertaken to increase livestock productivity and to preemptively rule out Newcastle disease so that highly-pathogenic avian influenza would be more readily detected. This intervention offered an opportunity to examine how chicken vaccination affects household economies, and to test whether increased livestock productivity could reduce illegal hunting for bushmeat. We found that vaccinations did increase chicken production and egg and meat consumption but did not reduce the frequency of bushmeat consumption at the household level and, furthermore, that bushmeat consumption was not related to food security. Our findings suggest that bushmeat likely supplements (rather than substitutes) domestic meat, and its supply is driven by hunters’ demand for cash rather than household demand for protein

Conservation of Sulawesis Endangered Mascot - the Maleo - through Conservation Incentive Agreements Conservation of Sulawesis Endangered Mascot - the Maleo - through Conservation Incentive Agreements

the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) established the Maleo Conservation Project in northern Sulawesi in 2001. Initially, the project focused on the protection of the nesting grounds, recruiting local rangers and maleo hunters as nest guardians. Similar approaches have been used for marine turtles (Ferraro 2007) and breeding waterbirds (Clements et al. 2007; Clements et al. 2009). Recruitment of hunters as nest protectors does, however, rely on being able to make annual payments, which is unsustainable given the nature of conservation funding. Consequently in 2007, WCS began to explore a new model, whereby the nesting sites and surrounding land was purchased by an Indonesian partner and managed in a sustainable manner in order to protect the birds and to generate revenue to pay for management costs. Locally managed privately-owned protected areas are commonplace in developed nations, but have rarely been attempted in Southeast Asia. The model has proved highly popular with local people because it ensures livelihoods in addition to protecting the maleo

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