Datasets:
ESGBERT
/
base_data

Dataset card Data Studio Files
xet
 Community
sentence
stringlengths
1
23.5k
⌀
Leuser’s old-growth, biodiversity-rich forests and peatlands remain remarkably healthy and intact, acting as nature’s lungs and helping to provide oxygen to the world.
We need to act quickly to protect this biodiversity powerhouse and its essential ecosystem services that locally benefit more than million people, particularly 862 villages around the national park.
This is a pivotal moment for the Gunung Leuser National Park and its surrounding forest area.
With MoEF, several of our collective goals are to: ■ Increase the Sumatran tiger population by threatened species.
■ Define new and enhanced strategies to conserve biodiversity and support communities around the national park by rolling out an “Integrated Prevention Model.” ■ Reduce poaching and forest habitat loss across this vast landscape by a further percent over the next five years.
■ Continue to rapidly respond to community reports of human-wildlife conflict as a way to prevent retaliatory killings of threatened species, such as tigers and elephants.
monitor tigers and their prey in order to measure population trends and determine if adjustments are needed to the collaborative conservation strategy.
Drawing on best-in-class science, WCS partners with the Indonesian government to bolster formal habitat protections and support law enforcement operations.
For Indonesia’s Ministry of Environment and Forestry (MoEF) to protect the Gunung Leuser National Park and its buffer forest in the south and southeast part of this second largest protected area in Sumatra.
Through our science-based approach, we have built a strong partnership with the national park management authority, collectively designing and rolling out effective interventions on the ground.
To take just one example, within just the last five years, we worked with the Gunung Leuser National Park authority to stabilize the Sumatran tiger population in eastern Leuser by supporting national park-led anti-poaching ranger teams.
We have supported the MoEF in establishing five Wildlife Response Units that partner with local communities to create realistic solutions to prevent tiger attacks on livestock.
Although we have seen incidents of human-tiger conflict since 2012, there has been just one retaliatory killing of a tiger.
WCS leads conservation programs in Fiji, Papua New Guinea, and Solomon Islands—countries which are part of the Melanesia region in the southwest Pacific.
A unique and essential biodiversity stronghold, it provides nearly livelihoods, and health benefits.
The region’s waters make up a cornerstone of the Coral Triangle—a critically important marine area containing world’s coral species and over 3,000 species of reef fish.
A new WCS-led study has shown that the Coral Triangle is surprisingly resistant to climate changerelated heat spikes, making it a sanctuary for coral reefs that play a central role in marine ecosystems and human livelihoods.
But the Coral Triangle can only survive over the long term if we can reduce other human pressures, such as overfishing and pollution.
A key part of the answer lies in improving gender equality and inclusion within fisheries management.
Women fishers account for an annual catch of nearly critical contributions to their household food and economic security.
Yet their substantial contributions are not included in most official statistics, and therefore are unrecognized in fisheries management and policy development.
small-scale fisheries management, these fisheries are more likely to be sustainable, and the benefits more fairly distributed.
Across our ocean strongholds, WCS is working to help secure new government commitments to protect by 2030; our work in Melanesia is a core part of this effort.
In Fiji, WCS is supporting the creation of a network of tabu (no-take) areas within Locally Managed Marine Areas; we are also ensuring that women fishers from local communities are able to take leading roles in the management of these areas.
In Papua New Guinea, WCS is working directly with women and other community members in the eastern part of the country to establish a new coastal MPA (square kilometers) and a new offshore MPA (5,000 square kilometers), both of which will be critical for community livelihoods as well as conservation of key fish and ray species.
Following these recent studies, WCS is collecting more data to help ensure women’s catches are counted and included in all statistics, analyzing the outcomes of local management through a gender lens, and we are advocating for greater participation of women in fisheries management decisions and policies.
THAILAND Ocean ecosystems support a vast range of marine species as well as the livelihoods, nutrition, and well-being of hundreds of millions of people.
But coral reefs, mangroves, seagrasses, and other marine habitats face unprecedented threats from overfishing, pollution, unsustainable resource extraction, and warming waters.
That is why WCS is working to secure stronger protections for the world’s oceans.
One of our key strategies is to support nations in creating Marine Protected Areas (MPAs), which have proven successful in conserving ocean strongholds.
The WCS Marine Protected Area Fund has helped bolster protection of biodiversity-rich waters across the globe.
Since the time of our ancestors, we have lived within nature.
Our “big house,” as we call it, is the source of our ancestral knowledge, of our medicines and food.
We live by hunting, fishing, harvesting wild fruits from healthy forests; we settle alongside lakes and streams because they provide for our daily lives.
Ever since WCS’s Rob Wallace and Lilian Painter first came to us more than has been an important ally to our 20 communities, and our main partner in collecting vital information about our territory.
With their scientific support in counting and mapping our many plants and animals, butterflies, fishes, and reptiles, we were able to develop the ecotourism project I work on at the San Miguel del Bala Lodge.
WCS also helped us develop materials about jaguars, giant otters, caiman, and other local species in Tacana, Spanish, and English.
Knowing where our animals live and move enabled my community to designate areas for specific activities: this zone for community tourism, that one for hunting or harvesting.
This research also allowed us to determine how many fruits we could harvest, how often we could hunt agoutis or other animals and still see them in our tourism areas and sustain them for the long-term.
Knowing how much territory each of our communities needs for subsistence also helped us reclaim title to our land.
WCS has even supported recovery of our Tacana native language.
To work together like this, we had to overcome great mistrust.
WCS organized workshops to listen, and to answer these questions.
After many workshops, we learned to say ‘We want this’ and ‘We do not want that’ in a beautiful and collaborative way.
As the only woman guide in Bolivia’s Amazonian region, I hope WCS will continue to support the development of our women into leaders defending the forests and heritage we’ve fought for, particularly in the face of new threats like gold mining that can damage our rivers and fisheries.
Building respect for our Indigenous territory, culture, and voice is critical to preserving Madidi and our communities.
Our people have adapted and continue adapting to change, from participating in scientific monitoring to welcoming tourism.
By combining our traditions and knowledge with the skills and reach of WCS, we have been able to improve our well-being and create work opportunities for our young people within the forest community, so they don’t have to leave.
Yet, we still have much to do to protect Madidi.
As a person, a woman, a mother, a wife, and a spokeswoman of the Tacana nation, I ask: Let’s continue to walk forward together, hand in hand.
As a member of the Indigenous Tacana People, I work with WCS to protect our lands and raise public awareness of their rich biodiversity.
Madidi-Tambopata is one of the last intact landscapes on Earth.
This unrivaled biodiversity haven is an important carbon sink that fortifies our natural defenses against climate change.
WCS’s scientific expertise and the ancestral knowledge of the Tacana People have come together to strengthen protections for Madidi, reduce deforestation, and protect vital species.
around us, with profound impacts on human well-being and the wildlife and wild places that WCS protects.
The climate crisis is the consequence of our broken relationship with nature—but nature could also be a powerful ally in the fight against climate change, if we choose to tap its immense potential.
Indeed, naturebased solutions can provide nearly one-third of the action we need by complementing other necessary climate solutions and buying time for them to be effective at scale.
Intact forests are particularly critical because they are massive carbon sinks for the planet.
WCS research has revealed that the benefits of saving intact tropical forests are six times higher than current methods assume.
In this section, we share highlights from WCS’s drive to stop the loss of highly intact forests by sink and ensuring that the 510 gigatonnes of CO2 these forests store stay out of the atmosphere.
We also share stories about WCS using cutting-edge science to help wildlife, coral reefs, and communities adapt to our changing world.
CONSERVATION IMPACT Advancing Climate Science to Protect Coral Reefs WCS is using robust science to evaluate the impacts of climate change on coastal ecosystems and forests.
One example is MERMAID, the world’s first open-source coral reef data platform.
This technology, developed by WCS and partners, enables conservationists to assess climate impacts on coral reefs and transform data into action.
In countries like Fiji, information from MERMAID flows from scientists to local communities so they can track their progress toward protecting their vital marine resources.
Protecting Intact Forests as Carbon Sinks To assess the health of forests, WCS developed a first-ever global metric to better understand such values as how much carbon a forest stores and its importance to local communities.
WCS has used this Forest Integrity Index to ascertain which forests are essential to conserve—such as those within the ultradiverse Amazon and Congo basins.
We are protecting intact forests and other high-integrity ecosystems to cost effectively and swiftly address the climate crisis.
loss of approximately 22,000 ha of forest, an area four times the size of Manhattan.
Over the project’s lifetime, WCS has supported the sale of over $community development, including helping local people to secure title to their lands and practice sustainable agriculture.
Helping Wildlife and Communities Adapt Around the world, WCS is helping people, ecosystems, and species adapt to the impacts of climate change.
increased heat stress of our planet in the coming years, and are working with partners worldwide to win protections for these vibrant, resilient reefs.
as seabirds and walruses adapt to climate impacts as sea levels rise.
And in places like Rwanda, WCS is leveraging support from the Green Climate Fund to reduce or limit greenhouse gas emissions while improving community resilience to climate impacts.
Strengthening Global Policy WCS is working to ensure that nature-based climate solutions are at the forefront of global decision-making.
In fall are playing a key role in important opportunities to elevate and advance nature-based solutions, such as at the UN Climate Change Conference in Glasgow and the UN Convention of Biological Diversity in Kunming, China.
These meetings will set the agenda for curbing climate change as well as restoring nature—and with input of WCS’s cutting-edge science, countries have now agreed to prioritize ecosystem integrity in setting goals and targets.
Engaging People on Climate at WCS Parks WCS is strengthening content on climate impacts and solutions for visitors to our New York zoos and aquarium, including through inpark signage and interpretation, and in our education programs.
At the New York Aquarium’s new Spineless exhibit, for example, we call out easy ways that our guests can help reduce pollution, destructive fishing, and climate change impacts—such as eating a more plant-based diet, choosing sustainable seafood options, and keeping trash out of storm drains.
WCS Climate Action WCS uses cutting-edge science to understand the impacts of climate change, plan conservation for a rapidly changing world, and devise nature-based solutions to protect people and the environment.
This map highlights how we are leading the charge to curb climate change, help wildlife adapt, and mobilize strong climate policies at national and international levels.
The planet’s intact forests pump out oxygen and hold vast stores of carbon in their biomass.
But WCS science shows that only world’s remaining forests are intact—that is, not significantly disturbed by human activity.
We lost nearly of these forests between 2000 and 2016 alone to road building, mining, logging, settlement, fire, agricultural expansion, and infrastructure development.
Overhunting of ecologically critical wildlife species further erodes the health of these unique places.
If destruction continues at the current pace, at least half of what we have now will be gone by the rate of climate change.
In the past year alone, WCS has helped secure, expand, or improve protection for more than million hectares of intact forests in 7 countries.
Securing the Critical Connection in the Maya Forest Corridor Mesoamerica’s five great forests are home to nearly 8 percent of the planet’s biodiversity.
They provide clean water, clean air, and food to million people—and hold nearly half the region’s forest carbon.
The Maya Forest, extending through Belize, northern Guatemala, and southeastern Mexico, is the largest of the five: a biodiverse ecosystem that is critically important to the local Maya peoples.
With WCS input, the government of Belize announced new plans to protect the corridor in threatened key areas.
To forestall those threats, WCS worked with a strong coalition of partners to lay the political, social, and financial groundwork to purchase and conserve the most critical parcel of land at risk: a habitat for jaguars and other species.
Advancing Science to Catalyze Action All forests are not equal.
In order to protect those forests with the greatest biodiversity, climate, and social values, we must first be able to identify them.
That is why WCS and partners created the first-ever global metric of forest integrity.
Now the data is available to all—and will help inform targeted action to conserve, manage, and restore intact forests.
Our strategy is to: ■ Advance rigorous science for measuring and valuing intact forests so their value can be recognized and incorporated into national and global commitments.
■ Catalyze global action by securing new policy commitments, funding, and financial mechanisms that incentivize and reward intact forest conservation, working with forest champion countries.
■ Accelerate and scale up protections in the world’s most important intact forest countries—where the carbon value and projected losses are greatest—together with community, Indigenous, and government partners.
Safeguarding Canada’s Boreal Forests One of the largest remaining intact forests in the world, the far northern Canadian boreal region has healthy ecosystems with a full suite of top predators including wolves and grizzly bears.