World Wildlife Foundation is a nonprofit organisation that works to protect nature and life on earth.
Our mission is to conserve nature and reduce the most pressing threats to the diversity of life on Earth World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) – official mission statement
About the NGO: World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF)
World Wildlife Foundation was founded 60 years ago and it has grown so much since then. The foundation now proceeds to do work in more than a 100 countries and have a supporters base with more than 5 million people in it.
They have six focus areas: forests, marine, freshwater, wildlife, food and climate. They focus on preserving and protecting nature while also recognising that climate change is what leads to droughts, flooding, deforestation, loss of biodiversity etc.
They protect nature so it can provide for all living things, including humans, in the future too.
Organization
Global headquarter: Gland, Vaud, Switzerland
Local headquarter: >75
Other locations: –
Board of directors: Carter Roberts; Pamela Matson; Yolanda Kakabadse; Robert Litterman; Sanjeev Mehra; Shelly Lazarus; Elizabeth L. Littlefield; Virginia Bush; Brenda S. Davis; Ruth DeFries; Jared Diamond; Leonardo DiCaprio; Christopher B. Field; Matthew Harris; Urs Hözle; Stephen J. Luczo; Kathleen McLaughlin; Luis Alberto Moreno; Iris Mwanza; Amanda Paulson; Vincent S. Pérez Jr.; Clara Lee Pratte; Jeffrey Ubben; Her Majesty Queen Jetsun Pema Wangchuck; Sharon Youngblood
International history of NGO
TimelineVol
- 1961 : World Wildlife Foundation is founded and Prince Phillip, the Duke of Edinburgh, becomes President of the British National Appeal – which was also the fist national branch. In the same year, the US Appeal is opened and the big panda becomes the logo of WWF.
- 1973 : WWF hires their first scientist, Thomas E. Lovejoy. WWF starts to not only focus on species-related conservation projects, but also on protecting habitats by establishing national parks and nature reserves.
- 1974 : WWF starts to award an annual 50,000 dollars Getty Prize for outstanding contributions to wildlife conservation. In 1999 the prize increases to a 100,000 dollars – and it begins to focus on the education of future conservationists.
- 1986: WWF changes its name to World Wide Fund for Nature, while retaining their initials
- 1990: The World Wildlife Foundation and the Conservation Foundation merge
- 2005: TheBoard of Directors adopts a 10-year goal: to measurably conserve 15 to 20 of the world’s most important ecoregions, while transforming markets, policies, and institutions in order to reduce threats to these places and the diversity of life on Earth.
- 2006: WWF engages with Wal-Mart on sustainability efforts.
- 2007: WWF announces a partnership with Coca-Cola for 20 million dollars focusing on seven important river basins, global supply chains and water use efficiency in its bottling plants.
- 2015: More than 1 million people sign a WWF petition to stop the slaughter of elephants
Northworthy results
During the 60 years that the World Wildlife Fund has been operating, they have had many achievements, for example:
- 1973 : WWF grants $38,000 to the Smithsonian Institution to study the tiger population of the Chitwan Sanctuary in Nepal. This allowed scientists to use radio tracking devices for the first time successfully.
- 1986 : WWF helps to create the first national park in Bhutan by transforming the Manas Wildlife Sanctuary.
- 1993 : WWF completes a 19 million dollars debt-for-nature swap in the Phillipines – the largest of such swaps ever undertaken by a nongovernmental organization.
- 2003 : WWF worked for three years to ensure that the 1.7 million acre Chandless State Park was created in the Brazilian Amazon.
- 2016 : WWF and Global Tiger Forum announce that for the first time in over a 100 years the number of wild tigers have increased.
Controverses
- The first international president of WWF, Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands, started a fund that could help finance WWF, called “the 1001: A nature trust”. The WWF never announced the names of the people in the fund and has therefore been accused that some of its members were elitist people that are involved in for example organised crimes, environmentally destructive development and corrupt politics. Prince Bernhard was also a member of this club.
- WWF has been accused of funding guards and rangers who committed crimes during their work, including the torturing and killing of innocent people. The organisation was accused of supporting anti-poaching units that have attacked, sexually assaulted, killed and shot villagers in Africa and Asia. It is also said that they supported paramilitary forces with salaries, supplies and training while funding raids on villages. The organisation took the claims seriously and launched an investigation on themselves. The review cleared WWF, but criticised them for serious oversights in their work. The staff was criticised for not intervening although they were aware that violations were committed by rangers.
- A former employee wrote a book where he said that WWF provides lobbying and practical help for trophy hunting. Later the WWF clarified on their website that they do not support trophy hunting.
How can you help?
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This page is written by Our Only Home (2021-10-29)
References:
WWF website: worldwildlife
Panda website: wwf
Nature trust: en
The guardian: theguardian
The guardian 2: theguardian
Trophy hunts: conservationaction
Review: wwfasia