January 2011

"I look ahead with anticipation to what the next 50 years will bring. We’re getting better and smarter with age—and the health of the planet will be better for it."

When I turned 50 last year, a well meaning friend shared a Gallup poll with me which found that by almost any measure, people got happier and more satisfied with themselves as they grew older—most notably after hitting the milestone I’d just reached. But the poll made me wonder if the same would hold true for an organization’s effectiveness—would that, too, get better with age?

This year WWF celebrates its own 50th anniversary. In the early years, projects funded included work with the bald eagle, the red wolf in the southern United States and tigers in Nepal. Species conservation was to be our calling card.

Any resilient organization evolves to meet the times, and much has changed since our founding. To this day, WWF continues to mount campaigns for species like tigers, elephants and sharks—but our work has also grown to include programs that connect people to conservation, understand large landscapes and seascapes and engage the most influential players to find ways to meet the needs of humanity without destroying the planet.

But if conservation began with the notion of raising funds and shipping them far away to save species, it’s become increasingly apparent that while money is fundamental to our work it must be matched by the actions and decisions we make here at home. We all have a role to play beyond opening our wallets. We must hold a mirror up to ourselves to create the kind of planet we want by changing the ways we make decisions about the products we buy, the businesses we lead and the institutions of which we are a part. And we also have to look at nature as something upon which our very own livelihoods depend.

I imagine a future in which we’ll be able to see, real-time, the health of the Amazon; changes in populations of species we hold most dear; where and how a product was produced and brought to market, and more—allowing us to monitor the impact of every action we take. And we will value nature with the same clarity and specificity as we value sports cars, or manufacturing plants, or schools. Combined with the traditional conservation that underpins the WWF legacy, this will be our future.

As we begin our 50th year, I can testify to the growing pride I have in all we do. I look ahead with anticipation to what the next 50 years will bring. We’re getting better, and smarter, with age—and the health of the planet will be stronger for it.

- Carter Roberts