Publications

Indoor soilless farming aims to reduce many of the more harmful effects of conventional field farming, including decreasing pressures on land, biodiversity, natural habitat, and climate. However, these indoor farms often have large energy footprints, are still figuring out the best way to support local communities and need support to share experiences and move the industry forward.

In the Phase I Innovation Analysis, WWF looked at how we might address some of these challenges and help bring these systems to scale.

In Phase II, WWF has used that research as a springboard for action. This report describes Phase II activities, including:

• forming the St. Louis Controlled Environment Agriculture (STLCEA) Coalition;
• analyzing innovative energy systems utilizing various stranded assets;
• exploring potential partnerships;
• soliciting and evaluating proposals from indoor farms interested in building and running a pilot indoor farm;
• choosing an indoor farm partner to bring an integrated system to the St. Louis region;
• exploring the feasibility of a Center of Excellence (CoE) on indoor farming in the St. Louis region; and
• kicking off the CoE‚'s initial projects and developing a long-term vision.

On International Anti-Corruption Day 2022, we recognize the determination of women who are taking remarkable steps to address corruption through conservation programming. Their challenges and contexts are all different, but their stories reinforce a common understanding--only by addressing corruption behind environmental crimes, supply chain threats, and natural resource governance challenges, can we safeguard a future for communities, wildlife, fisheries and forests. Their stories inspire us to think and program differently for strengthened results.

Renata Cao's work focuses on supporting World Wildlife Fund (WWF) offices in the Latin America region to advance their counter wildlife trafficking agendas and to facilitate coordinated responses, build regional technical capacities, and forge strategic partnerships.

Daniela Gomel is a public policy and governance specialist at Fundacion Vida Silvestre, a WWF partner organization in Argentina. She manages the policy and governance dimensions of several projects related to forests, protected areas, plastics and climate change. Daniela also coordinates a Targeting Natural Resource Corruption (TNRC) pilot project that focuses on promoting transparency and sharing learning to address corruption that undermines effective governance in the fisheries sector, particularly at the capture stage.

Nicola Okes represents TRAFFIC International, based in Southern Africa. She currently works across the global TRAFFIC network to coordinate engagement on issues relating to the illegal wildlife trade, with a focus on rhinos and elephants. She has previously worked on marine conservation and trade, analyzing both legal and illegal trade with the purpose of providing sustainable solutions to environmental concerns.

Shambhavi Poudel leads the Campaigns and Education Unit at WWF Nepal. She works closely with children and young people, placing them at the core of conservation interventions. She recently helped to design a new pilot activity under the TNRC project that focuses on mobilizing youth to promote good community forest governance.

For more resources and tools, visit TNRCproject.org.

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This content is made possible by the generous support of the American people through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The contents are the responsibility of World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and do not necessarily reflect the views of USAID, the United States Government, or individual TNRC consortium members.

Transparent 2022 is the third annual report from ReSource: Plastic, providing an update on how Member companies are addressing plastic pollution and identifying new opportunities to maximize impact.

WWF is one of 100 diverse organizations urging President Biden and House and Senate Leaders to ensure strong funding for foreign assistance programs in a final agreement on FY23 spending levels for the US government, and specifically to include the highest possible investments for international climate finance programs. These programs support developing country efforts to mitigate climate change and build resilience to its impacts, including through the protection of tropical forests and other critical, carbon-rich ecosystems. The ask was communicated in a letter sent by 100 signatory organizations representing environment and conservation, development, faith, health, science, foreign policy, and business communities and their millions of members and supporters.

Achieving significant increases in US government climate finance programs is essential to meeting US international commitments, including President Biden‚'s pledge to provide $11.4 billion in such finance by 2024, and to unlocking the global ambition needed to halt runaway climate change and protect the future of both people and nature. It is also very much in America‚'s own interest. As stated in the letters:

"Financing for international climate programs serves vital US interests by promoting global stability and security, creating economic opportunities for US businesses and workers, alleviating global poverty and food insecurity, protecting investments in international development, complementing global health efforts, and ensuring significant cost savings by promoting resilience and disaster preparedness."

One of the most commonly wasted items in school lunches is also one of the most iconic: milk. WWF projects that up to 45 million gallons of milk are wasted annually in schools. This not only represents a loss of nutrition, but also the environmental and financial resources that go into producing, transporting, cooling, and storing milk.

In partnership with Triangle Associates, WWF explores the experience of K-12 schools across the United States that have transitioned from traditional milk cartons to bulk milk dispensers. The study finds that switching to bulk milk dispensers can 1) reduce packaging and milk waste, 2) lower school costs, and 3) strengthen nutrition by increasing overall milk consumption. The goal is to help K-12 schools assess the feasibility of installing bulk milk dispensers by providing data, examples, and a Cost Savings Estimate Calculator.

A new briefing from WWF and TRAFFIC finds distressing evidence of documented snaring cases involving a minimum of 387 big cats (tigers, leopards, snow leopards, and Asiatic lions) across seven Asian countries between 2012-2021, with a majority of cases documented outside protected areas. The data suggest tigers ( Panthera tigris ) and leopards ( Panthera pardus ) are particularly impacted by snaring, with more than a third of cases involving tigers (33%) and more than half of the documented cases involving leopards (63%).

The findings highlight the need for governments to take holistic, multi-pronged steps to halt snaring before big cat populations are pushed further to the brink of extinction. Offering a series of recommendations in order to tackle the threat, the report stresses that leadership from local communities, combined with an increase in the number and quality of adequately supported, effective, inclusive, and professionalized ranger workforces, are key to dismantling the impact of snares.

This report assesses the health of the Upper Rio Grande, a portion of the broader Rio Grande/Rio Bravo river that runs from the Rocky Mountains in Colorado, through New Mexico, to the Gulf of Mexico. The Upper Rio Grande basin supports around 6 million people in the US, including over 20 Tribal Nations and Pueblos, and unique species like the Silvery Minnow, Southwest Willow Flycatcher birds, and the Rio Grande cottonwood tree.

As the first-ever report card for the region, the assessment provides an expansive look at over 30 indicators of social, environmental, and economic health across the three states it covers. Additionally, this report card combines the standard report card methodology with an innovative modeling approach, Freshwater Resilience by Design, that can inform future decisions on appropriate management options.

The Rio Grande/Rio Bravo (RGRB) has been declared one of the 10 most endangered rivers in the world, suffering from limited water availability due to climate change, water management, infrastructure, and increasing water use.

The findings from this Basin Health Report can be used to easily explain technical scientific information, increase public awareness, and inform and influence decision-makers to improve the health of a watershed.