World Wide Fund for Nature

The World Wide Fund for Nature is a Swiss-based international non-governmental organization founded in 1961 that works in the field of wilderness preservation and the reduction of human impact on the environment. It was formerly named the World Wildlife Fund, which remains its official name in Canada and the United States. WWF is the world's largest conservation organization, with over 5 million supporters worldwide, working in more than 100 countries and supporting around 3,000 conservation and environmental projects. It has invested over $1 billion in more than 12,000 conservation initiatives since 1995. WWF is a foundation with 65% of funding from individuals and bequests, 17% from government sources and 8% from corporations in 2020.
WWF aims to "stop the degradation of the planet's natural environment and to build a future in which humans live in harmony with nature." Living Planet Report has been published every two years by WWF since 1998; it is based on a Living Planet Index and ecological footprint calculation. In addition, WWF has launched several notable worldwide campaigns, including Earth Hour and the debt-for-nature swap, and its current work is organized around these six areas: food, climate, freshwater, wildlife, forests, and oceans.
WWF has faced criticism for its corporate ties and for support of conservation measures that have resulted in violent conflict with local people. WWF is part of the Steering Group of the Foundations Platform F20, an international network of foundations and philanthropic organizations.

History

The idea for a fund on behalf of endangered animals was officially proposed by Victor Stolan to Sir Julian Huxley in response to articles he published in the British newspaper The Observer. This proposal led Huxley to put Stolan in contact with Edward Max Nicholson, a person who had had 30 years of experience in linking progressive intellectuals with big business interests through the Political and Economic Planning think tank. Nicholson thought up the name of the organization and the original panda logo was designed by Sir Peter Scott. WWF was conceived on 29 April 1961, under the name of World Wildlife Fund. Its first office was opened on 11 September in IUCN's headquarters at Morges, Switzerland.
WWF was conceived to act as an international fundraising organisation to support the work of existing conservation groups, primarily the International Union for Conservation of Nature. Its establishment was marked with the signing of the Morges Manifesto, the founding document that sets the fund's commitment to assisting worthy organizations struggling to save the world's wildlife:
Prince Bernhard of Lippe-Biesterfeld helped to found WWF, becoming its first president in 1961. In 1963, the Foundation held a conference and published a major report warning of anthropogenic global warming, written by Noel Eichhorn based on the work of Frank Fraser Darling, Edward Deevey, Erik Eriksson, Charles Keeling, Gilbert Plass, Lionel Walford, and William Garnett.
In 1970, along with Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, and a few associates, Bernhard established WWF's financial endowment The 1001: A Nature Trust to handle the organization's administration and fundraising. 1001 members each contributed $10,000 to the trust. Prince Bernhard resigned his post after being involved in the Lockheed bribery scandals.

List of presidents

Years

Name

Country

1961–1976

Prince Bernhard of Lippe-Biesterfeld

Netherlands

Recent developments

WWF has set up offices and operations around the world. It originally worked by fundraising and providing grants to existing non-governmental organizations with an initial focus on the protection of endangered species. As more resources became available, its operations expanded into other areas such as the preservation of biological diversity, sustainable use of natural resources, the reduction of pollution, and climate change. The organization also began to run its own conservation projects and campaigns. In 1986, the organization changed its name to World Wide Fund for Nature, while retaining the WWF initials. However, it continued at that time to operate under the original name in the United States and Canada.
1986 was the 25th anniversary of WWF's foundation, an event marked by a gathering in Assisi, Italy to which the organization's International President Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, invited religious authorities representing Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, and Judaism. These leaders produced The Assisi Declarations, theological statements showing the spiritual relationship between their followers and nature that triggered a growth in the engagement of these religions with conservation around the world.
In the 1990s, WWF revised its mission statement to:
WWF researchers and many others identified 238 ecoregions that represent the world's most biologically outstanding terrestrial, freshwater, and marine habitats, based on a worldwide biodiversity analysis which the organization says was the first of its kind. In the early 2000s, its work was focused on a subset of these ecoregions, in the areas of forest, freshwater and marine habitat conservation, endangered species conservation, climate change, and the elimination of the most toxic chemicals.
Harvard University published a case study on WWF titled "Negotiating Toward the Paris Accords: WWF & the Role of Forests in the 2015 Climate Agreement": In 2023, Adil Najam, a globally renowned climate scientist and policy expert from Pakistan, was appointed as the president of WWF International signifying the growing importance on climate change as well as of human well-being in the WWF agenda.

Conservation Foundation

In 1947, the Conservation Foundation was formed in New York City by Fairfield Osborn. It arranged funding for scientific research into global conservation issues. It did not lobby or engage in politics. In 1985, it became an affiliate of WWF. In 1990, it completely merged into WWF.

Conservation Foundation in the United States

The organization now known as the Conservation Foundation in the United States is the former Forest Foundation of DuPage County. In 1996, the organization obtained general consultative status from UNESCO.

Panda symbol

WWF's giant panda logo originated from a panda named Chi Chi that had been transferred from the Beijing Zoo to the London Zoo in 1958, three years before WWF was established. Being famous as the only panda residing in the Western world at that time, her uniquely recognisable physical features and status as an endangered species were seen as ideal to serve the organization's need for a strong recognisable symbol that would overcome all language barriers. The organization also needed an animal that would have an impact in black and white printing. The logo was then designed by Sir Peter Scott from preliminary sketches by Gerald Watterson, a Scottish naturalist.
The logo, simplified and made geometric in 1978, then was stylized and made less detailed in 1986 at the time that the organization changed its name, with the revised version featuring solid black shapes for eyes. In 2000, a change was made to the font used for the initials WWF in the logo.

Organization and operation

Policy-making

Policies of WWF are made by board members elected for three-year terms. An executive team guides and develops WWF's strategy. There is also a national council which stands as an advisory group to the board and a team of scientists and experts in conservation who research for WWF.
National and international law plays an important role in determining how habitats and resources are managed and used. Laws and regulations become one of the organization's global priorities.
WWF has been opposed to the extraction of oil from the Canadian tar sands and has campaigned on this matter. From 2008 to 2010, tWWF worked with The Co-operative Group, the UK's largest consumer co-operative to publish reports which concluded that exploiting the Canadian tar sands to their full potential would be sufficient to bring about what they described as 'runaway climate change; carbon capture and storage technology cannot be used to reduce the release of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere to a level comparable to that of other methods of oil extraction; the $379 billion which is expected to be spent extracting oil from tar sands could be better spent on research and development in renewable energy technology; and the expansion of tar sands extraction poses a serious threat to the caribou in Alberta.
The organization convinces and helps governments and other political bodies to adopt, enforce, strengthen and/or change policies, guidelines, and laws that affect biodiversity and natural resource use. It also ensures consent by governments and/or keeps their commitment to international instruments relating to the protection of biodiversity and natural resources.
In 2012, David Nussbaum, chief executive of WWF-UK, spoke out against the way shale gas is used in the UK, saying: "...the Government must reaffirm its commitment to tackling climate change and prioritise renewables and energy efficiency."

Collaboration

The organisation works on a number of global issues driving biodiversity loss and unsustainable use of natural resources, including species conservation, finance, business practices, laws, and consumption choices. Local offices also work on national or regional issues.
WWF works with a large number of different groups to achieve its goals, including other NGOs, governments, business, investment banks, scientists, fishermen, farmers and local communities. It also undertakes public campaigns to influence decision makers, and seeks to educate people on how to live in a more environmentally friendly manner. It urges people to donate funds to protect the environment. The donors can also choose to receive gifts in return.
In October 2020, WWF was named as one of the alliance partner's of Prince William's Earthshot Prize to find solutions to environmental issues.
In March 2021, WWF announced an extension of its partnership with H&M to address sustainable supply chain practices.