Influencing Policy

WWF collaborates with the U.S. Congress and administration to further conservation through legislative and regulatory approaches. We also partner with U.S. government agencies to implement programs that support healthy ecosystems and the sustainable use of natural resources.

We inform policymakers about the most effective and efficient ways to protect the species and places we care about most. WWF focuses on several issues critical to U.S. policymakers, including species conservation, ocean policy, natural resource management, climate change and international development assistance. Our policy advocacy has helped direct additional resources to critical species. The Save Vanishing Species stamp was created by the Multinational Species Conservation Funds Semipostal Stamp Act, which passed Congress with overwhelming bipartisan support. WWF proposed the original idea in 2000 and played a major role in securing approval of the stamp. The sale of the semipostal stamp provided Americans with a way to voluntarily support conservation overseas.

WWF collaborates with business leaders and other non-governmental organizations to ensure policymakers understand conservation issues from several perspectives. As a result, sound public policy delivers meaningful on-the-ground conservation gains.

WWF works to gain a better understanding of global conservation problems and provides new tools to help policymakers solve them.

WWF is a Project Agency for the Global Environment Facility (GEF), which is the largest source of public funding to protect the environment worldwide. In this role, WWF can assist governments and other non-governmental agencies in the development, implementation, and management of GEF-funded projects, many of which are large-scale conservation initiatives. Previous GEF-funded projects have addressed issues related to biodiversity, climate change, international waters, and land degradation.

WWF is currently one of only two non-governmental organizations that have received GEF Project Agency status. Other GEF agencies include the World Bank, regional development banks, and United Nations agencies (such as the United Nations Environment Program and the Food and Agriculture Organization).

WWF became a project agency in November of 2013. Since being created in 1992, the GEF has awarded $12 billion in grants and leveraged nearly $60 billion more across 3,000 projects. WWF has been involved in more than 100 of those projects, including several related to the Amazon Regional Protected Areas and Coral Triangle Initiative.