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.
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.
• Petitions and legal action under U.S. and international law
• Global policy advocacy
• Coalition building with local allies
• Creative media
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 2017 filed a lawsuit to help 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.
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The proposed 92-mile-long Vía Verde pipeline would cut Puerto Rico in half, destroying precious habitat for imperiled species like the tiny coquí llanero frog.
The Okinawa dugong, a gentle, highly endangered manatee relative, could become a casualty of U.S. military construction off the coast of Japan.
Birds of the world: We seek legal protection for scores of imperiled nesters from the frozen Arctic to the tropical paradise of Fiji.
The U.S.-Mexico borderlands — millions of lovely, remote acres where jaguars and pronghorns roam — are at high risk from unnecessary security and immigration measures.
We lead an international coalition to rescue Panama's ecological jewel, La Amistad, from four planned dams.
Borderlands and Boundary Waters
International Birds Initiative
International Swallowtails Initiative
Panama Rainforest and Rivers
Salva al Oso Polar
San Pedro River
Fighting the Vía Verde Pipeline
Agave eggersiana
Brown-banded antpitta
Cauca guan
Coquí llanero
Eastern massasauga
Elkhorn coral
Esmeraldas woodstar
Jaguar
Kootenai River white sturgeon
Leatherback sea turtle
Mexican bobcat
Ocelot
Okinawa dugong
Okinawa woodpecker
Penguins
Polar bear
Puerto Rico rock frog (coquí guajón)
Rota bridled white-eye
Solanum conocarpum
Staghorn coral
Swallowtail butterflies
Western Pacific black brant
Vaquita
Virgin Islands tree boa
Xantus's murrelet
56 birds
UNESCO report: The Threat to Biodiversity and Ecosystem Function of Proposed Hydroelectric Dams in the La Amistad World Heritage Site, Panama and Costa Rica
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Highways to Hell: A Critical Examination of the Environmental Impacts of the Security and Prosperity Partnership
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3 MB version
The Bering Sea: A Biodiversity Assessment of VertebrateSpecies
Greenwashing Risks to Baby-boomers Abroad