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Wildlife and Climate Change
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Wildlife and Climate Change

Overview

Learn how WWF and partners are helping wildlife adapt to changes in weather and climate through our Wildlife Adaptation Innovation Fund.

Changes in climate and extreme weather events have already begun to affect people and nature across the globe. And climate change exacerbates other threats like habitat destruction, overexploitation of wildlife, and disease.

From the shrinking habitat of the polar bear to increased water scarcity driving human-wildlife conflict, these changes will become more pronounced in years to come.

WWF is working to better understand how a changing climate impacts species, and we are developing and implementing solutions to help them adapt to these changes. We are assessing our priority species to determine traits that make them resilient or vulnerable to changes in climate, funding projects through our Wildlife Adaptation Innovation Fund, and crowdsourcing data and implementing projects for people and nature.

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A lion lies on the grass under the rain

Why It Matters

  • Range Shifts

    Climate is the most important predictor of butterfly species distribution. Butterflies have been documented shifting their range toward the poles and to higher altitudes.

  • Changing Food and Water Availability

    African elephants need up to 300 liters of water a day, just for drinking. As rainfall patterns change, humans and wildlife are competing for diminishing sources of water.

  • Increase in Pests and Disease

    As winters get warmer and shorter, moose populations in the northern US are declining due to tick infestations.

  • Changes in the Timing of Life Cycle Events

    Responding to warmer spring temperatures, plants are flowering earlier than they used to, resulting in a mismatch between peak plant growth and the animals that depend on them.

  • Coral Bleaching

    Oceans have absorbed much of the planet’s warming since the Industrial Revolution. Warming oceans are causing corals to expel the algae living in their tissues and turn white—a phenomenon known as coral bleaching. Over time, the corals can die off and no longer offer a healthy ocean habitat for the species that rely on them for feeding and protection.

What WWF Is Doing

visiting a watering hole in Thailand

WWF's Nikhil Advani and Wayuphong Jitvijak, and a park ranger in Thailand's Kui Buri National Park, where we are working to secure freshwater for elephants and other wildlife.

Species Assessment Tool

Researchers and conservation practitioners can use this tool to assess a species’ vulnerability to climate change. They are encouraged to share their results with WWF’s ongoing project.

polar bear

WWF Climate Crowd

WWF Climate Crowd is an initiative to crowdsource data on how rural communities are being impacted by changes in weather and climate and develop and implement solutions that help people and nature adapt to these changes.

Wildlife Adaptation Innovation Fund

WWF’s Wildlife Adaptation Innovation Fund supports the testing of new ideas that have potential to reduce the vulnerability of wildlife to changes in climate through on-the-ground projects. Successes and lessons learned from these pilot projects provide useful guidance that move conservation beyond business-as-usual approaches and rapidly scale promising efforts to help wildlife endure under conditions of rapid change. Learn more about this and the projects we've funded.

Learning Resources

Built around WWF's wildlife and climate change work, we have developed additional learning resources designed for educators teaching advanced high school and college students.

Publications

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Experts