Influencing U.S. Government Policy

Overview

Why policy should recognize the benefits of wildlife

Wildlife provides vital benefits to people in innumerable ways, from pollinating plants so we have food to eat to dispersing seeds so forests can help regulate our climate. However, new WWF-led research shows that these important contributions are vastly underrepresented across science and policy discussions.

A sea otter floats on its back among kelp in the ocean

Why It Matters

  • Helping People, Wildlife and Forests in Viet Nam

    Decades of illegal logging and wildlife trade, poaching, and agricultural conversion in Viet Nam threaten vital ecosystems and exacerbate poverty in vulnerable communities. WWF has worked with the US government, the Government of Viet Nam, local communities, and other conservation partners on the Biodiversity Conservation and Saving Threatened Wildlife projects to combat illegal wildlife trafficking and deforestation to conserve Viet Nam’s rich biodiversity while helping local communities develop sustainable sources of income.

  • Enhancing Flood Resilience in Pakistan

    Catastrophic flooding in Pakistan in 2022 demonstrated the urgency of the climate crisis. The Recharge Pakistan project – a collaboration between Pakistan's Ministry of Climate Change and the Federal Flood Commission, local communities, the Green Climate Fund, the US government, WWF and the Coca-Cola Foundation – has worked to strengthen the region's resilience to extreme weather through enhanced flood risk management.

  • Partnering with Indigenous Communities in the Amazon

    Indigenous people's active participation in the sustainable economic, cultural and environmental development of the Amazon is essential for the long-term conservation of the world's largest tropical rainforest. The Amazon Indigenous Rights and Resources project, a partnership between WWF and the US government in coordination with Indigenous organizations and nonprofit partners, supported educational resources to expand Indigenous leaders' advocacy capacities and helped Indigenous enterprises with business development in Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru. From 2019 to 2024, these enhanced advocacy efforts by Indigenous communities resulted in policy measures to protect their rights and the Amazon being adopted by major international institutions, including the World Bank and Inter-American Development Bank, and reflected in outcomes of recent climate change and biodiversity COPs, the IUCN World Conservation Congress, and the Escazú Agreement to protect the environment and human rights in Latin America and the Caribbean. The project further enhanced the territorial monitoring and protection mechanisms of two Indigenous territories in Brazil (1 million hectares) and 21 in Peru (185,785 hectares), benefiting 11,344 people.

  • Stopping Wildlife Crime in Namibia and Kaza

    Illegal poaching poses a dire threat to numerous species in southern Africa, including elephants and rhinos. The US government and WWF launched the Combating Wildlife Crime Project in 2017 to stabilize the populations of black rhinos in Namibia and elephants in the Kavango-Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area (KAZA), including by working closely with local authorities to enhance their wildlife crime surveillance capacity using new technology and modernized field procedures. By the project’s conclusion in June 2023, there had been no reports of illegal killings of black rhinos in northwest Namibia in three years. And a multi-country survey of elephants in the KAZA area – which is home to half of Africa’s remaining elephants – found that the total population is stable.

  • Increasing Civil Society Participation in Greater Mekong Environmental Management

    Countries across the Greater Mekong – including Burma, Cambodia, Lao PDR, Thailand, and Viet Nam – face serious environmental challenges, including biodiversity loss, deforestation, and water quality degradation. These are often driven by poorly planned development, natural resource crime, and corruption, in addition to the worsening impacts of climate change. The Mekong for the Future project has worked to increase the capacity of civil society organizations and citizens to engage in natural resource policy development at the local, national, and regional levels. This project has to date achieved results in facilitating collaborations of civil society networks to promote effective management of natural resources, such as the Mekong River, as well as climate resilience and clean energy access.

  • Targeting Natural Resource Corruption

    Corruption undermines sustainable natural resource management efforts, drives resources away from the public good and into private hands, and facilitates nature crimes. The Targeting Natural Resource Corruption (TNRC) project focused from 2018-2024 on harnessing knowledge, generating evidence, and supporting innovative policy and practice for more effective anti-corruption programming to conserve wildlife, fisheries, and forests. TNRC was a Leader with Associates award, implemented by WWF, in partnership with the U4 Anti-Corruption Resource Centre at the Chr. Michelsen Institute, TRAFFIC, and the Terrorism, Transnational Crime and Corruption Center at George Mason University, in collaboration with the Basel Institute on Governance.

  • EXPANDING EFFECTIVE, HIGH-QUALITY INFRASTRUCTURE SAFEGUARDS IN ASIA

    Asia is exceptionally rich in biodiversity and home to a wide range of ecosystems. Yet the rapid expansion of linear infrastructure—including roads, railroads, power lines, fences, and canals—threatens this natural heritage. The Asia’s Linear Infrastructure safeGuarding Nature (ALIGN) project, implemented by WWF and the Center for Large Landscape Conservation in partnership with the US government, aims to expand the development and implementation of effective, high-quality linear infrastructure safeguards in Asia—with specific focus in India, Mongolia, and Nepal—to protect people and nature from harm and promote ecosystem connectivity so these habitats and their wildlife can continue to thrive.

  • RESTORING BISON AND FERRET POPULATIONS IN THE GREAT PLAINS

    Before westward expansion, tens of millions of bison roamed America’s Great Plains, alongside robust populations of black-footed ferrets. Overhunting, habitat loss, and disease nearly led to the decimation of these two iconic mammals. Since then, WWF has worked with local, tribal, and government partners to help restore their populations. Once believed to be extinct entirely, more than 300 black-footed ferrets have been brought back into the wild following these efforts to maintain their habitat and relocate prairie dogs, the ferret’s main food source. WWF also works with the Fort Belknap Indian Community in partnership with the US government to support bison range expansion.

  • PROTECTING ELEPHANTS, TIGERS, RHINOS, GREAT APES, AND TURTLES AROUND THE WORLD

    The Multinational Species Conservation Funds run by the US Fish and Wildlife Service help support the protection of some of the world's most iconic wildlife: elephants, tigers, rhinos, great apes, and turtles. These targeted investments have helped advance conservation achievements like nearly tripling the number of tigers in Nepal and coordinating the first-ever joint elephant survey across five south African countries that showed the population is now stable. These programs have supported WWF’s ongoing efforts to protect endangered white-handed gibbons in Lao People’s Democratic Republic, rhinos in Nepal, Asian elephants in Cambodia and Viet Nam, and more. In partnership with members of Congress in both parties, WWF successfully advocated for the five-year renewal of the Multinational Species Conservation Funds in 2024.

What WWF Is Doing

CONSERVATION AT HOME AND ABROAD

WWF advocates for strong U.S. federal policies and funding for international conservation, working closely with Congress and partner agencies, including USAID, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), and the State Department. WWF also advocates for strong domestic policies to combat climate change, protect endangered species, and conserve important American landscapes and seascapes, including the grasslands of the Northern Great Plains and the Alaskan Arctic.

INVESTING IN Wildlife and Biodiversity Conservation

Bison herd and newborn calves, Wolakota Buffalo Range, Rosebud Sioux Reservation

WWF promotes conserving the diversity of life on Earth and halting the drivers of species loss. WWF advocates for US government programs that provide critical support for conservation in low- and middle-income countries, which are home to some of our planet’s richest ecosystems. WWF, in partnership with members of Congress in both parties and other environmental organizations, also supported the enactment of a new US Foundation for International Conservation to make federal dollars toward protecting nature count double with additional investments from private and philanthropic sources. WWF further supports measures to defend the Endangered Species Act, our nation’s primary law protecting species from extinction, and restore iconic American wildlife like the black-footed ferret and the American bison.

STOPPING THE ILLEGAL TRADE OF NATURAL RESOURCES

A school of Jack fish in the waters off the coast of Vanua Levu, Fiji

Defending nature is a matter of national security. Criminal actors profit from illegally poaching and trading natural resources such as wildlife, timber, and fish. WWF supports US government programs and policies to stop illegal wildlife trafficking; enforce the Lacey Act to halt the illegal timber trade; and prevent Illegal, Unreported, and Unregulated (IUU) fishing by strengthening the NOAA Seafood Import Monitoring Program so that all seafood entering the US marketplace is fully traceable to legal sources. Laws like the Big Cat Public Safety Act – which was enacted in 2022 following the advocacy of nearly 700,000 WWF activists – are instrumental in helping prevent captive wildlife from ending up in the illegal trade of their parts and products. Following calls led by WWF and industry to halt imports of illegally sourced wood, the Department of Agriculture requires greater supply chain traceability of products such as furniture, sporting goods, housewares, tools, boats, vehicles, and cork. Additionally, WWF helped advance a provision in the 2024 National Defense Authorization Act that allows the Department of Defense to build local capacity for stopping illicit maritime activities like illegal fishing.

CONSERVING FORESTS

Amazon Rainforest, Brazil

Forest conservation is intricately connected to some of the most pressing problems we face: climate change, species loss, wildfires, corruption, and weak governance. WWF advocates to mobilize resources for the conservation, management, and restoration of critical ecosystems such as the Amazon and Congo Basin, including through projects supported by the US government as well as debt-for-nature swaps under the innovative Tropical Forest and Coral Reef Conservation Act. WWF further supports policies to tackle the illegal and unsustainable production of agricultural commodities that drive forest, grassland, and habitat loss globally. Additionally, WWF works to create and implement effective safeguards for the development of linear infrastructure – particularly roads, railways, and power lines – that protect people and nature from harm.

Securing our FOOD AND FRESHWATER SYSTEMS

Irrigation Sprinkler Spraying Water on Farm Field

Healthy ecosystems are foundational to food and water security. But unsustainable agricultural practices and overexploited freshwater resources are major drivers of nature loss, undermining human wellbeing and the health of critical ecosystems. WWF works in partnership with government and the private sector to reverse these declines, including steps to halt the 40 percent of the US food supply that is wasted every year. WWF urges Congress to pass a long-overdue new Farm Bill incorporating funding and policy recommendations that would invest in American farmers, ranchers, and forest-owners to conserve critical habitats such as native grasslands in the Northern Great Plains and build a more resilient food system. The last iteration of the Farm Bill in 2018 included funding for conservation programs that help US producers keep natural habitats intact with the support of nearly 200,000 activists.

MITIGATING CLIMATE CHANGE

An ice lagoon is seen on a melting glacier in, Jokulsarlon, Iceland

Communities, species, and livelihoods are all under threat from a changing climate. WWF supports policies that ensure the US meets its global commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and invest in the ability of low-and middle-income countries to build their resilience to natural disasters and extreme weather. This includes working to ensure the successful implementation of the historic climate and clean energy investments in the Inflation Reduction Act and urging Congress to provide robust funding for international efforts to help countries protect their citizens from the extreme heat, flooding, storms, and other disasters that are becoming increasingly common around the world. WWF also advocates for elevating actions and policies that harness the power of nature in the US government response to climate change.

REDUCING PLASTIC WASTE

Plastic litter washed up on Watamu beach. Watamu, Kenya.

WWF’s No Plastic in Nature initiative aims to stop the flow of plastic into nature by 2030. WWF's approach brings together all stakeholders — government, businesses, and the public — to reduce the consumption of plastic while establishing more consistency in how people reuse and recycle it. At the state and federal levels, WWF advocates for reduced reliance on single-use plastics as well as Extended Producer Responsibility measures that have now been enacted in states like Minnesota and Colorado to ensure that companies creating plastic waste are responsible for reducing their plastic footprint. Bipartisan, pragmatic measures like the Save Our Seas Act 2.0 that help the federal government better understand the barriers to recycling and identify interventions to keep plastic out of nature have also become law following WWF’s advocacy. Globally, WWF is one of the leading NGOs advocating for governments to agree to an ambitious and equitable United Nations global treaty to end plastic pollution.

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