Publications

The world is off track to protect and restore forests by 2030. Fortunately, there‚'s still time to get back on course and meet global goals. WWF‚'s Forest Pathways report shows how the scale of failed action on the world‚'s forests is leading to an alarming increase in deforestation. It also shows it‚'s possible to halt deforestation, sustainably manage forests, and restore them in ways that benefit humanity and nature.

The KAZA Elephant Survey 2022 Fact Sheet provides an outline of high-level findings from the survey along with the rationale for the work, including the need for a synchronized and coordinated approach and an outline of the survey techniques employed.

The KAZA Elephant Survey was conducted from August to October 2022 to estimate the number and distribution of Africa‚'s largest savanna elephant population. It was the first time that all five KAZA partner states‚ – Angola, Botswana, Namibia, Zambia, and Zimbabwe‚ – collaboratively undertook a standardized survey of the region‚'s entire elephant population in a single coordinated exercise. The primary objective was to obtain a relatively precise and accurate estimate of the number of live elephants, elephant carcasses, and other large herbivores in the region in order to inform future conservation plans and opportunities to enhance human-wildlife coexistence. The survey was coordinated by the KAZA Secretariat, with support from WWF, Paul G. Allen Family Foundation, and others, as well as international and US governmental agencies like US Fish and Wildlife Service and USAID.

The KAZA Elephant Survey was conducted from August to October 2022 to estimate the number and distribution of Africa‚'s largest savanna elephant population. It was the first time that all five KAZA partner states‚ – Angola, Botswana, Namibia, Zambia, and Zimbabwe‚ – collaboratively undertook a standardized survey of the region‚'s entire elephant population in a single coordinated exercise. The primary objective was to obtain a relatively precise and accurate estimate of the number of live elephants, elephant carcasses, and other large herbivores in the region in order to inform future conservation plans and opportunities to enhance human-wildlife coexistence. The survey was coordinated by the KAZA Secretariat, with support from WWF, Paul G. Allen Family Foundation, and others, as well as international and US governmental agencies like US Fish and Wildlife Service and USAID.

The Kavango Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area (KAZA TFCA) is home to the largest population of elephants in the world. The long-term viability of KAZA‚'s elephants as a transboundary population depends upon securing landscape connectivity between protected areas. Identifying and addressing the threats to habitat connectivity must be prioritized in order for elephants and other wildlife to move freely throughout this landscape.

The KAZA Policy Brief on Elephant Movements and Connectivity in the KAZA TFCA provides an overview of the current data and knowledge regarding elephant movements and connectivity in KAZA. It provides recommendations for securing and maintaining corridors at different scales to ensure the persistence of landscape connectivity for elephants and other migratory wildlife. It will also work towards the objectives and vision of KAZA‚'s Strategic Planning Framework for the Conservation and Management of Elephants in the KAZA TFCA, to secure KAZA as a focal landscape for elephants and other wildlife for the benefit of rural communities and society at large.

The benefits of receiving funding support from WWF‚'s Russell E. Train Education for Nature (EFN) extends beyond completing the academic program and conservation activities. For close to three decades, EFN has invested in over 3,000 individuals, empowering leaders to pursue Ph.D., master‚'s and undergraduate, and short-term courses and worked with over 600 institutions across 60 countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America and the Caribbean. The work led by alumni has increased national, regional, and global-level collaborations and benefited communities and nature. WWF is committed to strengthening its global community of EFN alumni to connect, develop, and sustain their science capacity and leadership for long-term benefits to people and nature.

Sustained actions to support effective and timely conservation and sustainable development efforts must not only be underpinned by interventions that incorporate a wide range of local and traditional knowledge, skills, tools and abilities, but must also provide long-lasting impact to keep pace with increasing biodiversity challenges. Building robust, functional, and adaptive interventions requires long-term investment in research, education, and training that bolsters capacities to accelerate conservation outcomes.

Despite demands placed on biodiversity to meet current and future societal needs, capacity deficits in many places around the globe continue to be evident and include insufficient resources to sustain individual and organizational capacities, limiting the ability to build local conservation leadership. Efforts to foster and maintain conservation capacity have included the development of core competencies, provision of resources, support for education, research, and training and establishment of institutions. However, the complexity of balancing loss of biodiversity with development combined with widening inequalities in capacity continues to demonstrate that achieving inclusive conservation and sustainable development requires scaling up and across to deliver individual, institutional, and community capacities. At this critical moment in time, when biodiversity is faced with growing threats, we require support for individuals and systems to continuously meet the surge in capacity and close the gap between capacity needs and delivery.

Reflecting on nearly three decades of EFN work, the Cassagnol Fellowship creates an opportunity to deliver on the lesson that supporting conservation leaders at their home country universities, research centers, and conservation projects creates lasting opportunities for co-development and collaboration, and therefore ensures longevity of solutions while also sustaining the pipeline of conservation leaders.

Discover WWF's strategy for reshaping global food systems. This factsheet emphasizes the urgency to cease ecosystem degradation for food production. WWF envisions more resilient, nature-positive systems aligned with Sustainable Development Goals. Through targeted initiatives, WWF collaborates with stakeholders to drive the adoption of regenerative agriculture, share best practices, align supply-chain actions, scale innovations, and strengthen enabling environments. This factsheet is a guide to WWF's initiatives to create a more sustainable and nourishing food landscape

Discover WWF's vision for a water-secure future. This factsheet emphasizes the vital role of preserving freshwater resources and ecosystems. WWF envisions a world where the human right to water is supported by resilient freshwater ecosystems, benefiting both human and wildlife populations. The factsheet outlines WWF's approach, including promoting good governance, advocating for sustainable practices, influencing financial flows, and convening stakeholders. It also highlights policies and on-the-ground actions to protect and restore rivers and wetlands, illustrating the collective effort needed for a thriving future.

At the heart of connecting nature and people is the inextricable link between inclusive conservation and sustainable development. Inclusive conservation plays a critical role in ensuring the diversity of human-ecosystem interactions with an emphasis on sustainable livelihoods and developing capacity to accelerate responsiveness in tackling potential adverse impacts to people and the environment. In Africa, efforts are underway to implement interventions and actions that collectively strengthen the three dimensions of sustainable development: economic, social, and environmental. However, the complexity of balancing loss of biodiversity with development continues to demonstrate that achieving inclusive conservation and sustainable development requires action to deliver institutional and individual capacities in line with the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The capacities to achieve social, environmental and governance standards are still inadequate in many countries. International institutions and non-governmental organizations often rely on consultants to fill this gap, fulfilling requirements for due diligence, but not creating local ownership and therefore making implementation more difficult. Collectively strengthening capacities of country systems is crucial in ensuring ownership and accountability. This approach involves taking into account environmental and social risks while putting in place both direct mitigation measures and adaptation measures that are attuned to the long-term vision of inclusive conservation and sustainable development.

In the last 28 years, EFN has been at the forefront of advancing research, training, and education through the provision of funds to individuals and institutions to address critical challenges facing biodiversity conservation in Africa, Latin America, and Asia. WWF recognizes the urgency to continue strengthening institutional mechanisms and abilities to advance contributions of national institutions, local communities and organizations, and youth, who often are ill-equipped to drive and achieve the goals of addressing environmental and social impacts.

With support from Charlotte Bingham, Environmental and Social Impact Assessment Grant seeks to build capacity and empower communities to achieve development objectives and inclusive conservation with projects that robustly address environmental and social issues.

Global human-wildlife conflicts (HWC) are increasing as people and wildlife compete for resources in coupled human and natural systems globally. These conflicts can be costly to human wellbeing and detrimental to the survival of wildlife. Strengthening scientific understanding of HWC through interdisciplinarity and collaboration is fundamental in collectively developing solutions to sustainably manage and reduce conflicts while promoting coexistence.

Now in its 29th year, WWF‚'s Russell E. Train Education for Nature Program (EFN) has endured its long-time legacy to provide financial support to local leaders and institutions to enhance their education, scientific research, and conservation actions to steward their own natural resources.

With support from Gerald A. & Karen A. Kolschowsky Foundation, this master's fellowship aims to deliver on WWF‚'s long-standing commitment in supporting conservation leaders and scientists to enhance capacity in-country. Applications are invited from individuals aiming to pursue graduate-level studies (master's degree) with a research focus on developing solutions for human-elephant conflict around the northern border of Murchison Falls National Park, Uganda. The individual selected for this master's fellowship will join a research team led by Dr. Robert Montgomery (Associate Professor of Biodiversity and Sustainability at the University of Oxford, UK) and Dr. Tutilo Mudumba (Founder and Director, Snares to Wares Initiative).