The Pacific Islands Conservation Research Association (PICRA) is a U.S. federally recognized 501(c)3 nonprofit organization. PICRA has a mission of advancing knowledge about insular Pacific species, populations, and ecosystems through unbiased scientific investigations. Research focuses on improving knowledge about islands and the conservation issues that insular fauna face. Results from PICRA’s work are intended for use in the development of applied and theoretical solutions to conservation problems.
PICRA was formed when several conservation biologists and scientists felt that Pacific island conservation issues could benefit greatly from additional research. PICRA scientists have addressed basic biological research documenting the distribution, behavior, interactions, and population dynamics of species in Pacific Oceania. Additional focus has been placed on studying multi-species interactions and the evolution of islands species.
Recent PICRA projects addressed endangered species in the central and south Pacific basins. PICRA supported projects studying coral reef fish and endangered Micronesian Kingfishers ( Todiramphus cinnamominus ) in the Federated States of Micronesia.
Environmental science is an interdisciplinary academic field that integrates physics, biology, and geography to the study of the environment, and the solution of environmental problems. Environmental science emerged from the fields of natural history and medicine during the Enlightenment. Today it provides an integrated, quantitative, and interdisciplinary approach to the study of environmental systems.
The United States Fish and Wildlife Service is an agency of the United States Federal Government within the United States Department of the Interior dedicated to the management of fish, wildlife, and natural habitats. The mission of the agency is "working with others to conserve, protect, and enhance fish, wildlife, plants and their habitats for the continuing benefit of the American people."
The Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary is a sanctuary off the Pacific coast of Southern California. The National Marine Sanctuary program is administered by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), informally known as NOAA Fisheries, is a United States federal agency within the U.S. Department of Commerce's National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) that is responsible for the stewardship of U.S. national marine resources. It conserves and manages fisheries to promote sustainability and prevent lost economic potential associated with overfishing, declining species, and degraded habitats.
The Canadian Wildlife Service or CWS, is a Branch of the Department of the Environment, a department of the Government of Canada. November 1, 2012 marked the 65th anniversary of the founding of Service.
The Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA) was the first act of the United States Congress to call specifically for an ecosystem approach to wildlife management.
The Guam kingfisher is a species of kingfisher from the United States Territory of Guam. It is restricted to a captive breeding program following its extinction in the wild due primarily to predation by the introduced brown tree snake.
Bird conservation is a field in the science of conservation biology related to threatened birds. Humans have had a profound effect on many bird species. Over one hundred species have gone extinct in historical times, although the most dramatic human-caused extinctions occurred in the Pacific Ocean as humans colonised the islands of Melanesia, Polynesia and Micronesia, during which an estimated 750–1,800 species of birds became extinct. According to Worldwatch Institute, many bird populations are currently declining worldwide, with 1,200 species facing extinction in the next century. The biggest cited reason surrounds habitat loss. Other threats include overhunting, accidental mortality due to structural collisions, long-line fishing bycatch, pollution, competition and predation by pet cats, oil spills and pesticide use and climate change. Governments, along with numerous conservation charities, work to protect birds in various ways, including legislation, preserving and restoring bird habitat, and establishing captive populations for reintroductions.
Ecological extinction is "the reduction of a species to such low abundance that, although it is still present in the community, it no longer interacts significantly with other species".
The Sea Turtle Restoration Project (STRP), founded in 1989, is a project of Turtle Island Restoration Network (TIRN), a United States 501(c)(3) nonprofit environmental organization with a goal of protecting endangered sea turtles from human-caused threats at nesting beaches and in the ocean.
Earthwatch Institute is an international environmental charity founded as Educational Expeditions International in 1971 near Boston (USA) by Bob Citron and Clarence Truesdale, then superintendent of Vermont public schools. It is one of the global underwriters of scientific field research in archaeology, paleontology, marine life, biodiversity, ecosystems and wildlife. For over forty years, Earthwatch has delivered a unique citizen science model to raise funds and recruit individuals, students, teachers and corporate fellows to participate in critical field research to understand nature's response to accelerating global change. Earthwatch's work supports hundreds of Ph.D. researchers across dozens of countries, conducting over 100,000 hours of research annually.
Felidae Conservation Fund (FCF) is a California-based non-profit organization dedicated to preserving wild cats and their habitats. The organization supports and promotes international wild cat research and conservation by collaborating on field research projects, partnering with other environmental organizations, and developing community outreach and education programs.
Ecology Project International is a non-profit organization based in Missoula, Montana, dedicated to developing place-based, ecological education partnerships between local experts and youth to address conservation issues. Ecology Project International (EPI) works with students and educators at seven program sites around the world: Belize, Costa Rica, mainland Ecuador, Galápagos Islands, Hawaii, Mexico, and Yellowstone.
The Alfaguara project is a marine life conservation project operated from Puñihuil in the northwest of Chiloé Island, the main island in the Chiloé Archipelago in southern Chile.
The Wildlife Conservation Society Canada, based in Toronto, Ontario, is the Canadian affiliate of the Wildlife Conservation Society International (WCS), incorporated as a conservation organization in Canada in July 2004. WCS Canada currently runs conservation projects across six key regions in Canada led by its staff of field-based scientists.
The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for the Conservation of Cetaceans and their Habitats in the Pacific Island Region is a Multilateral Environmental Memorandum of Understanding concluded under the auspices of the Convention on Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS), also known as the Bonn Convention, and in collaboration with the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP). The MoU provides an international framework for coordinated conservation efforts to improve the conservation status of the Pacific Islands Cetaceans and came into effect on 15 September 2006.
Carl Gwynfe Jones, MBE is a Welsh conservation biologist, who has been employed by Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust since 1985, and a founding member (1984) and current scientific director of Mauritian Wildlife Foundation (MWF). Additionally he is Chief Scientist at Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust, and an honorary professor in ecology and conservation biology at the University of East Anglia. Often outspoken on the importance of knowing your species and using intuition, empathy and practical knowledge over dogmatic education, Jones is best known for his work in recovering the Mauritius kestrel from just four individuals in 1974, to an estimated 400. Working in the Mascarene Islands since 1979, Jones has led five successful bird restoration projects where the starting population has numbered less than 12 individuals; as a consequence Mauritius has averted more bird extinctions than any other country. Jones has pioneered the use of ecological or taxon replacements to fill the ecological roles of extinct animals and successfully restored levels of endemic vegetation to previously denuded islets. Jones' work has been highlighted in Douglas Adams and Mark Carwardine's 1990 radio documentary Last Chance to See, along with its accompanying book, as well as David Quammen's 1996 book The Song of the Dodo: Island Biogeography in an Age of Extinctions.
The Swiss Cetacean Society is a Swiss nonprofit organization devoted to the preservation of marine mammals in their natural habitat. Founded in 1997, its headquarters are in Lausanne in Switzerland.
Island Conservation is a non-profit organization with the mission to prevent extinctions by removing invasive species from islands. Island Conservation has therefore focused its efforts on islands with species categorized as Critically Endangered and Endangered on the IUCN's Red List. Working in partnership with local communities, government management agencies, and conservation organizations, Island Conservation develops plans and implements the removal of invasive alien species, and conducts field research to document the benefits of the work and to inform future projects.
Walter John Emil Kress is an American botanist and the vice-president for science at the National Museum of Natural History. He currently holds the appointment (2010) as the Director of the Consortium for Understanding and Sustaining a Biodiverse Planet at the Smithsonian and is the former Executive Director of the Association for Tropical Biology and Conservation.