Hey all, this is Going Wild and I'm Dr. Ray Wind Grant.

Today we're stepping away from Going Wild to bring you the season two premiere episode of WCS Wild Audio,

a podcast from our friends at the Wildlife Conservation Society, or WCS.

WCS Wild Audio brings you the latest news and newsmakers from WCS's global field sites and its wildlife parks in New York City, including the Bronx Zoo and the New York Aquarium.

In today's episode, Wild Audio's Nat Moss talks to Mariana Varese, the Peru-based director of WCS's Amazon Landscapes Program.

They'll be discussing a new initiative together for conservation that is working to conserve biodiversity while preventing environmental crime in the Amazon.

The project brings indigenous peoples and local communities together with journalists, private companies, and civil society groups to develop conservation solutions that can be expanded or replicated across the Amazon.

If you like what you hear, follow WCS Wild Audio on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, or your favorite podcast app, and tell them we sent you.

Hello, I'm Hannah Kaplan, and this is the WCS Wild Audio podcast, where you'll find reported audio stories covering the latest news and newsmakers from WCS's field sites, zoos and aquarium, and their conservation partners. We've got a great show today,

so let's get to it.

Mariana Veraci is a Peru-based director of WCS's Amazon Landscapes Program. She recently spoke to Wild Audio about a new initiative, together for conservation,

that seeks to conserve biodiversity while preventing environmental crime in the Amazon.

The project brings indigenous peoples and local communities together with journalists,

private companies, and civil society groups to develop conservation solutions that could be

expanded or replicated across the Amazon.

Nat Moss reports.

Wild meat, ornamental fish, jaguar teeth and skins, birds, turtles, and frogs destined for the pet trade.

These are just some of the Amazon's natural bounty being stripped from the region's forests

and rivers for a clandestine trade in global wildlife that

ranks forth in sales after drugs, arms, and people.

The loss of these resources creates great hardships for the indigenous peoples of the Amazon.

Mariana Verraise explains,

...