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.
How WWF is helping threatened species adapt to climate change

Why It Matters
What WWF Is Doing
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.

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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Wildlife in a Warming World: The Effects of Climate Change on Biodiversity
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Giant Panda: WWF Wildlife and Climate Change Series
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Monarch Butterfly: WWF Wildlife and Climate Change Series
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Polar Bear: WWF Wildlife and Climate Change Series