US government policy

Overhunting, habitat loss, and disease nearly led to the decimation of buffalo and black-footed ferrets after westward expansion. 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 WWF's work with the Fort Belknap Indian Community, US government agencies, and other partners to maintain their habitat and relocate prairie dogs, the ferret’s main food source. The Tribal Buffalo Lifeways Collaboration—which includes the InterTribal Buffalo Council, Native Americans in Philanthropy, The Nature Conservancy, and WWF—is also committed to working with US government agencies to build on the momentum created by Indigenous leaders to bring lasting structural change and return buffalo to Tribal lands at an unprecedented scale.

The Multinational Species Conservation Funds managed 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 southern African countries that showed the population is now stable. These programs have supported WWF’s efforts to protect white-handed gibbons in Lao People’s Democratic Republic, rhinos and tigers in Nepal, Asian elephants in Cambodia and Viet Nam, and more.  Following concerted advocacy by WWF and its partners, Congress passed a five-year renewal of the Multinational Species Conservation Funds in 2024 with strong bipartisan support.

Africa is home to some of the world's most iconic species, like elephants and rhinos, which are under dire threat from illegal poaching for their ivory and horns sold on the black market. WWF worked with the US government and partners to stabilize the populations of black rhinos in Namibia and elephants in the Kavango-Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area (KAZA) region, which spans parts of Angola, Botswana, Namibia, Zambia, and Zimbabwe, by working closely with local authorities to enhance their wildlife crime surveillance capacity using new technology and modernized field procedures. By the conclusion of the work in June 2023, there had been no reports of illegal killings of black rhinos in northwest Namibia in three years. WWF has also partnered with the US government and American tech companies to create and deploy first-of-its-kind artificial intelligence systems at hotspot airports in eastern and southern Africa that automatically detect wildlife contraband.

An estimated 530,000 tons of food is wasted in schools each year, wasting billions of gallons of water and driving greenhouse gas emissions, while about 15 million American children face hunger. In partnership with the Environmental Protection Agency, WWF's Food Waste Warriors program works with school districts in Atlanta, Baltimore, Memphis, and Nashville to conduct food waste audits, implement composting and recycling initiatives, and engage communities through outreach campaigns.