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Overview
Science and Exploration
Despite increased publicity and funding for environmental education and conservation, we are losing the battle to save the earth's wildlife and wild places. Species extinction occurs on an almost daily basis, yet the public eye pays little heed to such events because there are no obvious impacts on our way of life. For over a hundred years, it has been the mission of the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) to save wildlife and wild places. While we have made great strides in the field of conservation biology, it has become increasingly clear that we need to push our conservation agenda forward in a more dynamic and strategic manner, and we need to define measurable outcomes against which we can judge our accomplishments. The Science and Exploration Program (SEP) was established in 2001 to advance these goals.
 Recognizing the fact that conservation must occur at many levels within the human-dominated landscape, SEP believes that fully protected and properly managed core areas (i.e. national parks and wildlife sanctuaries) are the most important components of long-term conservation. Unfortunately, much of the world's remaining wild lands are neither surveyed nor legally protected. We must work directly with those people living on these wild lands to ensure the needs of both people and wildlife are met. SEP believes that people are an essential part of wildlife conservation.
SEP's mission is to explore, survey, and protect the earth's wild places, and to promote integrated, science-based research for the study, conservation, and management of wildlife and its habitat within these wild places. |
