Publications

Climate change is already changing the Arctic, and current carbon reduction commitments will not be enough to stop this transformation cold. This executive summary of a July 2016 Columbia Climate Center workshop details why global leaders must focus on helping the region adapt and accelerate a reduction in carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

Climate change is already changing the Arctic, and current carbon reduction commitments will not be enough to stop this transformation cold. Instead, world leaders must focus on helping the region adapt and accelerate a reduction in carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. This paper summarizes the outcomes of this workshop and highlights how world leaders can move forward.

WWF has scored 137 companies on their use of certified sustainable palm oil, which is grown in ways to limit greenhouse gas emissions, preserve forests and fresh water, and protect wildlife. See which brands are taking action and which are falling short.

WWF and TRAFFIC believe that an ivory trade ban in China is feasible and could be effective in contributing to a reduction in current threats to African elephants. Such an ambitious and achievable act could garner positive exposure for China's responsible action on a critical wildlife conservation issue and become a positive influence on other countries' efforts to tackle the illicit ivory trade. 

A new report from WWF highlights important signs that an unstoppable global energy transition is underway. The report notes that the recently agreed Paris Agreement on climate change draws a line in the sand for the transformation of the world’s energy system into a clean and sustainable form.

Since CoP16, international momentum has been building against wildlife crime, with a raft of global declarations and commitments to tackle poaching and wildlife trafficking. This report outlines WWF's stance on African elephant issues at CoP17. 

Since CoP16, international momentum has been building against wildlife crime, with a raft of global declarations and commitments to tackle poaching and wildlife trafficking. CoP17 represents an opportunity to put these commitments into action through strong measures on wildlife crime, corruption, demand reduction and compliance. 

The Alliance for Water Stewardship (AWS) led a mutli-stakeholder process to develop the first internationally recognized frameworkd for implementing comprehensive water stewardship: the AWS International Water Stewardship Standard. 

With our partners at University of Maryland's Center for Environmental Science, WWF is producing, packaging, and sharing a process that can mainstream report card development in basins around the world. By developing report cards in a variety of basins, we can move closer to our goal of securing fresh water for people and nature. 

Societies have gone to extraordinary efforts to harness the power of rivers. The world is now poised to double the global hydropower capacity by 2040, along with continued expansion of associated infrastructure rivers. Governments, communities, companies, and conservation organizations are seeking ways to ensure that this development can meet needs for energy and water while maintaining healthy rivers.

A science-based, globally agreed-upon methodology for monitoring and protecting free-flowing rivers could produce the tools, guidance, and information needed to make more sustainable decisions about infrastructure that impacts freshwater ecosystems.

Extreme weather events are adding a new, ominous threat to the monarch butterflies’ key wintering habitat in Mexico, according to a report by the WWF-Telmex-Telcel Alliance, the National Commission of Natural Protected Areas, and the Institute of Biology of the National Autonomous University of Mexico.

The International Coalition for Sustainable Aviation (ICSA) has developed a Progress Report on the International Civil Aviation Organization’s (ICAO) “market-based measure” that evaluates the environmental benefits included in the most recent publicly available draft.

The International Coalition for Sustainable Aviation (ICSA) works to reduce pollution from air travel. ICSA encourage encourages the aviation industry and the United Nations body in charge of international aviation policy— the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO)— to use this checklist when developing an effective plan to cut aviation global warming pollution.

WWF commissioned the Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI) to evaluate the supply and sustainability of carbon credits and alternative fuels for international aviation. This WWF summary of SEI’s findings shows there are plenty of good carbon credits and alternative fuels available to achieve, and exceed, ICAO’s 2020 target, and no need at all to use poor quality credits or fuels.

The Paris Agreement covers all anthropogenic emissions, sets out important principles on carbon markets and sends a clear signal that the aviation sector must act.

With our partners at the University of Maryland’s Center for Environmental Science, WWF is producing, packaging and sharing a science-based report cards on river basins around the world. By developing these report cards in a variety of basins, we can move closer to our goal of securing fresh water for people and nature.

A new WWF report explains the business and economic case for sourcing timber that is from responsibly managed forests. The report explains how committing to 100 percent responsibly managed timber would help the global economy, as well as the economy of the United Kingdom more specifically.

To combat the trade in illegal wildlife products through web-based platforms, e-commerce and social media companies have teamed up to adopt a standardized wildlife policy framework for online trade. This policy simplifies shopping guidelines for consumers, helps educate users about product legality, eliminates the loopholes that make it easy for criminals to traffic wildlife online and presents a unified, global front to stop wildlife crime.

Millions of people depend on water that springs from the high-mountain headwaters of Central Asia. Its towering peaks are home to the endangered snow leopard, ancient cultures, and landscapes that are being too quickly transformed by climate change. Glaciers are melting, snow cover and permafrost are disappearing, and water availability is changing—putting local and downstream communities and ecosystems at risk.

In October 2012, WWF began to address this through the USAID-funded Conservation and Adaptation in Asia's High Mountain Landscapes and Communities Project. The five-year effort promotes a transboundary approach to climate-smart management of high mountain landscapes and enhanced water security throughout the snow leopard range.

On April 5, 2014, the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies and the World Wildlife Fund co-organized the workshop ‘Environmental and Social Risk Management of Chinese transnational corporations’ to foster discussions around the challenges and opportunities for Chinese TNCs and how they can enhance their environmental and social performances overseas. This synthesis report is organized around the three main themes highlighted throughout the workshop.

In April 2016, the Government of Nepal and the Global Snow Leopard & Ecosystem Protection Program (GSLEP) secretariat hosted two consecutive workshops in Kathmandu, Nepal, aimed at building momentum towards developing climate-smart management plans for snow leopard landscapes identified under the GSLEP to be ‘secured by 2020’. This report summarizes the proceedings of the workshop.