WCS Annual Report 2012 - Wildlife Conservation Society

[ below ] Camera traps
like this one in Thailand
help to monitor the status
of individual tigers.
Protecting Thailand’s Tigers
Following the poaching deaths of at least nine
tigers in Thailand’s Western Forest Complex in
2010 and 2011, WCS helped to establish patrols
that apprehended suspects in the killing of a
tigress and her three cubs. One poacher’s cell
phone contained a digital image of him posing
on a dead tiger. The suspects argued that the
animal was killed in neighboring Myanmar, but
WCS camera trap photos proved otherwise.
With wild tiger numbers down to 3,200 from
more than 100,000 a century ago, the urgent
need to protect these magnificent cats and their
prey could not be greater. WCS’s long-running
collaboration with the Government of Thailand
to train and deploy park guards in the country’s
most important reserve, the Huai Kha Khaeng
Wildlife Sanctuary, has led to seven years of
population stability in tigers and other wildlife,
in contrast to dramatic declines in nearby
unprotected parks.
WCS’s long-running col laboration
with the Government of Thailand
to train and deploy park guards
in the country’s most important
reserve has led to seven years of
population stability in tigers and
other wildlife.
The most effective protection involves the
long-term efforts of committed park rangers
patrolling protected areas with support for
local communities. Though wildlife guards are
typically deployed by national governments,
outside support for technical training and
financial resources is proving critical. Much of
that comes from non-governmental organizations,
with their generous private donors, and
from national government agencies like USAID
and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
More money — and the resulting increase
in the number of guards — is crucial to the
survival of species targeted by poachers. Fortunately,
relatively small investments can have
big impacts. In Huai Kha Khaeng, nearly 200
rangers cover an area of 1,073 square miles for
an annual cost of under $5,000 per ranger. The
results are encouraging: the cell phone-wielding
poachers were convicted in 2012 to terms of
four and five years – the harshest punishments
for poaching in Thai history.
Marking Independence Day in
South Sudan
WCS has been a conservation partner with
South Sudan since the end of the two-decade
long civil war with the north. Surveys conducted
by WCS in 2007 revealed that globally
unique wildlife and other natural resources had
survived the war. With funding from USAID,
WCS and the Government of South Sudan have
been working since 2008 to sustainably manage
natural resources, conserve biodiversity,
improve security in remote areas, and reduce
natural resource-based conflicts.
On July 9, 2011, the people of South Sudan
formally voted to become an independent
nation. Yet in the year following the vote, the
relative peace that accompanied the separation
of South Sudan from its northern neighbor
gave way to new ethnic conflict and clashes
over disputed oil fields. While petroleum drives
much of the conflict, the south remains home
to other critical resources: vast un-fragmented
ecosystems, immense water resources and intact
woodlands; and the world’s second largest land
mammal migration.
WCS serves as the official technical partner
of the Government of South Sudan for its
protected area system. The establishment and
stewardship of areas such as the Boma and Badingalo
Parks, along with key wildlife migration
corridors, has led to a dialogue over land and
resource management and improved detection
and deterrence of armed groups. Protected
area employment opportunities are a stabilizing
influence for young farmers and herdsmen
susceptible to involvement in tribal unrest.