ABOUT GWC

Mission

Global Wildlife Conservation's mission is to use the best science to protect the world’s threatened wildlife and their habitats.

The Biodiversity Crisis

Preserving the planet’s threatened and dwindling wildlife is one of the greatest challenges now facing humanity. There are over 16,000 species of plants and animals worldwide facing the danger of extinction, including 12 percent of birds, 23 percent of mammals, and nearly a third of amphibians. Indeed, the rapid decline of frogs and other amphibians over the past several decades has raised worldwide alarm.

Global Wildlife Conservation was established to promote greater understanding of the current extinction crisis and global threats to biodiversity and the environment. The organization bases decisions on solid science, and conducts all operations using sound environmental and social ethics. An innovative and unprecedented goal of field expeditions, scientific research, and wildlands conservation has been set.

The world’s environmental problems, resulting from a complex array of human activities, demand rigorous scientific investigation across national boundaries. Global Wildlife Conservation is designed to meet these challenges. Through its projects, GWC unites with the world’s leading conservation organizations, universities, zoological and botanical organizations, and museums that have long studied the environment from multidisciplinary perspectives. Maximizing effectiveness through collaboration gives GWC an undeniable advantage as it works to apply the best science to the biodiversity crisis. GWC is striving to improve life on Earth by advancing both academic and applied approaches to conservation research, action, and education. Along with partners, GWC is pursuing a common goal: to understand and maintain the natural world and its biological diversity.

To achieve this goal, GWC seeks the support of all who share its commitment to conserving the planet’s biodiversity. With generous contributions from benefactors who recognize humanity’s interdependence with the natural world, GWC generates the data and insights that are vital to determining the scope of the extinction crisis and crafting effective policies to solve it.

The need to protect biodiversity is made obvious by one grave and unavoidable fact: extinction is irreversible. Once a species disappears, it is gone forever. Current extinction rates are as much as 1,000 times higher than extinction rates in the fossil record, and increased habitat destruction and species exploitation are making matters worse. Moreover, at-risk species are more concentrated in the developing world, where population growth rates are high and resources for conservation management are scarce. The loss of biodiversity impoverishes the natural world, removing countless practical benefits to humanity, such as environmental maintenance, food, and potential medicines. We have a moral obligation to preserve the planet’s animals and plants for the good of humanity today and into the future.