PARTNERING WITH NATIVE NATIONS TO RESTORE BISON ON THE NORTHERN GREAT PLAINS
Millions of plains bison once roamed the grasslands of North America. Then years of Western Expansion and US government policies nearly drove the species to extinction. In response to their tragic decline, conservationists and Indigenous peoples have been working for more than a century to bring the plains bison back from the brink. Since 2014, WWF has partnered with Native Nations throughout the Northern Great Plains in support of their efforts to conserve and restore grassland ecosystems and bring bison back to their traditional homelands.
Most recently, with the goal of increasing understanding of current Tribal bison restoration work, WWF organized a pivotal Returning Buffalo with Native Nations Roundtable. Bringing together Tribal bison restoration leaders and influential federal agency members, the roundtable enabled deeply productive discussions—most importantly, with Native Nation leaders driving the conversation. The breakthrough approach allowed for deeper listening and stronger understanding of ways that government agencies can better support Tribal approaches to restoration. This significant event, along with ongoing progress on Native-led bison restoration projects, has supercharged momentum for bison and grassland restoration efforts.
RECOVERING BIG CATS IN THE WILD
Big cats like lions, tigers, cheetahs, and jaguars contribute to healthy ecosystems and provide benefits to people and the economy, yet these iconic species have suffered dramatic population declines over the last century. To help big cats make a comeback, WWF works with partners and communities to restore habitat, stem poaching and trade, monitor big cats and their prey, and improve human-wildlife coexistence.
India recently announced that its tiger population has exceeded 3,100 tigers, up from about 1,400 in 2010. Meanwhile, Bhutan’s tiger numbers have grown 27% since the country’s first survey 2015. In the Americas, WWF partners with communities on the ground, local and national groups, and government agencies to safeguard key jaguar landscapes. In 2022, WWF successfully advocated for greater transboundary collaboration to secure jaguar populations and combat illegal trade. With populations distributed across 18 countries, this level of cooperation is critical to the future of jaguars.
FACILITATING TRANSBOUNDARY COOPERATION
In the fall of 2022, aircraft surveyed over 120,000 square miles of southern Africa’s Kavango Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area, known as KAZA, to estimate the number and distribution of Africa’s largest savanna elephant population. All five partner states that make up this area—Angola, Botswana, Namibia, Zambia, and Zimbabwe—along with WWF, multiple organizations, governments, and other partners, worked collaboratively to implement a standardized survey of the entire contiguous elephant population in a single coordinated exercise. This is especially important in this region, where elephants and other wildlife regularly move across country borders.
Over the last year, WWF provided extensive scientific expertise on the draft and final environmental impact statements for the oil and gas leasing program initiated under the Trump administration, as well as comments on the grave risks seismic testing poses to the high concentration of south Beaufort Sea polar bears denning in the Refuge.
The survey, released in August 2023, found an overall stable and slightly larger population of 227,900 elephants in the region, with variation between and within countries. While the number of elephants in Zambia has decreased compared to previous surveys, populations in Angola, Botswana, Namibia, and Zimbabwe have all increased. These results will be critical for future conservation efforts in the region and will serve as an important baseline for wildlife monitoring.
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