Global and Regional Partners

Conservation (Social) Enterprise: Ibis Rice

Website : http://ibisrice.com
Geographic Scale : Cambodia​
Singapore Context : 
In Singapore, WCS seeks to seek new partnerships to expand markets for IbisRice

The Wildlife Conservation Society launched the Ibis Rice initiative in 2009 to promote and market wildlife-friendly rice grown in the communities located in areas in the northern plains of Cambodia protected for their biodiversity value. Ibis Rice links wildlife conservation to improving livelihoods of villagers whose opportunities are limited by the constraints of living in a remote area with little opportunity to expand their farms and limited market access. Hundreds of affiliated farmers are now the guardians of 500,000 hectares of remote national park land and more than 60 threatened and endangered species in an area traditionally plied by loggers and poachers.

The company pays a premium for the pure, long grain jasmine rice coming from a protected area, and have established a range of products at the top of the Cambodian market. Since the project began, the critically endangered Giant Ibis, Cambodia’s national bird, has made a comeback. Now, IBIS Rice is available around the world including Singapore.

A partnership of non-governmental organizations (NGO) and government agencies, this project provides local communities with an incentive to engage in conservation, by offering farmers a premium price for their rice if they agree to abide conservation agreements that are designed to protect the rare water birds and other species that use the protected areas.The project is recognized as a partnership for SDGs 2 and 15


Forest Conservation and Restoration: Trillion Trees

Website : https://www.trilliontrees.org​
Geographic Scale : Global
Singapore Context : In Singapore, WCS seeks to utilize the Trillion Trees platform to seek partnerships to reduce deforestation, achieve zero deforestation targets and avert degradation in high biodiversity forest landscapes

Trillion Trees is an unprecedented collaboration between three of the world’s largest conservation organisations - World Wildlife Fund, BirdLife International, and the Wildlife Conservation Society - to help end deforestation and restore tree cover. Our partnership is founded on our commitment to a shared vision focused on keeping trees standing and restoring them in the places they once grew, and the belief that working together we can achieve more than we can individually.

Tree cover is an essential part of what makes Earth a healthy and prosperous home for people and wildlife, but the global stock has fallen – and continues to fall – dramatically. In fact, we are still losing 10 billion trees per year.

The consequences? More carbon emitted and less absorbed, dwindling freshwater stores, altered rainfall patterns, fewer nutrients to enrich soils, weakened resilience to extreme events and climate change, shrinking habitat for wildlife and other biodiversity, insufficient wood supply to meet rising demand, harsher local climates, and harder lives for more than one billion forest-dependent peoples across the world.

The response of the Trillion Trees partnership is twofold: catalyze large-scale investments to protect, restore, and replant trees in the most at-risk landscapes, and inspire greater action under private and public forest commitments guided by the Paris Climate Agreement, the New York Declaration on Forests, the UN Convention on Biodiversity (“CBD”), and other frameworks. In the Southeast Asian Archipelago region, many companies and governments already recognize the value that trees hold for human societies and wildlife, which is why so many are committing themselves to ‘zero-deforestation’ policies. WCS is proud to leverage more than 100 years of scientific and advocacy expertise throughout the tropics to help these partners target their investments effectively to improve global tree cover and successfully implement 'zero deforestation' commitments in our priorty landscapes in Malaysia and Indonesia.

Stopping Species Extinctions in SE Asia: Asian Species Action Partnership (ASAP)

Website : http://www.speciesonthebrink.org​
Geographic Scale : Singapore and Regional
Singapore Context : In Singapore, WCS works in partnership with the Wildlife Reserves Singapore to catalyze conservation action and increase financial investment opportunities for ASAP species conservation across the ASEAN region

WCS is a founding member of the Asian Species Action Partnership (ASAP), a consortium of partners committed to averting species extinctions by galvanizing financial and technical support. WCS is engaged with in situ as well as ex situ conservation efforts for ASAP species, is represented on the ASAP Governing Council, and is a core part of the ASAP Secretariat. WCS will support scaling up financial resources to initiate and strengthen conservation efforts on ASAP species.

ASAP is an International Union for Conservation of Nature Spcies Survival Commission (IUCN SSC) initiative aimed at reversing the declines in the wild of species on the brink of extinction - critically endangered freshwater and terrestrial vertebrates in Southeast Asia.

The consortium aims to collectively leverage financial support to scale up ASAP species conservation. Through increased financial support, ASAP aims to:

  • implement targeted conservation actions addressing gaps, threats and priority needs for ASAP species recovery and long-term survival
  • build the capacity and leadership of regional conservationists and species champions ensuring sustainability to drive ASAP species conservation impact
  • initiate ex situ recovery for priority species as needed
  • protect sites important for ASAP species through preventing habitat loss and strengthening law enforcement for exploited ASAP species
  • engage and influence conservation policy relevant to ASAP species.

Private Sector Engagement in Counter Wildlife Trafficking: United for Wildlife

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