Endangered wildlife knows no borders. The Center works to protect global biodiversity by using U.S. and international law to hold governments accountable for threatening imperiled species wherever they're found.

ABOUT OUR INTERNATIONAL WORK

The Center protects species as distinct from each other as the Okinawa dugong, the polar bear and the pangolin in places as far-flung as Vietnam and Uganda. By using the U.S. legal system and U.S. laws — like the Endangered Species Act — we’re working to ensure that American government activities and projects abroad don’t hurt imperiled species. We also take action under international wildlife protection treaties and trade laws to ensure species abroad are given the protection they deserve. With our office in Mexico and our grassroots conservation-group allies abroad, the Center is securing a future for diverse species and habitat around the globe.

HOW WE DO IT

• Petitions and legal action under U.S. and international law
• Global policy advocacy
• Coalition building with local allies
• Creative media

MILESTONES

Our International Program:

• In 2016 secured international protections for lions, nautiluses and endangered totoaba, as well as a ban on international trade ban for pangolins -- small, scaly creatures that are the most traded mammals on Earth.

• Through a lawsuit, compelled the U.S. government to issue new rules in 2016 to ban fish imports that don’t meet U.S. standards for protecting marine mammals like dolphins and whales.

• In 2016, through petitions and aggressive media, prompted Mexico to ban dangerous fishing gear off the Baja Peninsula that was killing more than 1,000 endangered loggerhead sea turtles a year.

 In 2015 petitioned the UNESCO World Heritage Committee to deem the Gulf of California World Heritage Site “in danger” due to declines in vaquita, critically endangered porpoises that the site was designated to protect.

In 2015 sought “endangered” protections for Africa’s savannah and forest elephants, with both species vanishing due to the illegal ivory trade.

• In 2014 sought a trade embargo to save the vaquita, the world’s smallest porpoise, from Mexico’s unlawful totoaba fishery.

• In 2012 challenged the United States Export-Import Bank’s nearly $5 billion in funding for two natural gas facilities inside Australia’s Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area, a case that will address whether the U.S. Endangered Species Act applies to all U.S.-funded projects abroad.

• In 2012 sought sanctions to stop Canada’s unsustainable polar bear hunt that violates an international polar bear treaty. Canada and other range countries have now agreed to a joint reporting program for all hunting and polar bear trade.