Publications

While considerable progress is being made toward more low carbon, resilient infrastructure development, there are still major gaps in current planning approaches to be addressed to make progress against multiple goals in critical global agreements on climate, biodiversity, and sustainable development. Natural capital and ecosystem services continue to be undervalued and poorly understood, especially the benefits they provide in supporting resilience for people and infrastructure in a rapidly warming world.

This report (hi-res version), with support from GIZ, outlines a new planning approach integrating considerations of natural capital and ecosystem services, climate risks and resilience, and sustainable development needs to support social-ecological system scale planning. It provides key recommendations for global and local institutions influential in infrastructure development, from multilateral development banks and other funders to NGOs and the private sector, to address these gaps and facilitate an improved planning approach.

There is a growing realization that individual supply chain actors lack the power to fix large-scale environmental degradation such as deforestation, depletion of wild fish stocks, and plastic pollution on their own, yet these problems pose real risks to entire industries, company reputations, and long-term profitability.

Pre-competitive platforms offer a diversified strategy and a faster path to innovation and progress. One such collaboration that has demonstrated clear value for businesses is the Global Salmon Initiative (GSI), a platform representing nearly 50% of global salmon aquaculture production. This is a case study of their challenges, successes, and a case for change at a scale that would not be possible alone.

Formal institutions are central actors in natural resource governance decisions and a key arena in which policies, laws and regulations ranging from forest concessions to trade in wildlife products are negotiated and implemented. As gatekeepers in resource management decisions, natural resource governance institutions are frequent targets for actors seeking undue influence on these decisions. Getting to know institutions – how they work, the personalities involved, the pressures they are under, where their revenues come from – is a critical first step towards minimizing corrupt influences and unlocking their anti-corruption potential.

Law enforcement agencies monitor and enforce laws that protect landscapes, seascapes, and the species that inhabit them. In many countries environmental crimes are a low priority for law enforcement authorities, particularly when they are under-resourced and face a range of other threats to the rule of law. Corruption helps violators circumvent these laws and regulations and makes law enforcement a much less reliable tool for limiting and preventing environmental harms.

A recent study completed by WWF analyzed student plate waste across 46 schools in 8 states, the largest study of its kind to measure food waste in schools. The results and implications were eye-opening, when you consider that there are nearly 100,000 public schools participating in the National School Lunch Program, serving 29.6M students daily. This business case outlines the calculations and examines how reducing plate waste can save money and enable savings to be re-invested into school food programs to improve food and nutritional quality, educational programs, and local economies.

In the spring of 2019, WWF, with support from The Kroger Co. Foundation and the U.S. EPA, looked at post-service food waste in 46 schools in nine US cities across eight states. We worked with partners on the ground to share the experiential Food Waste Warrior conservation curriculum: running audits in cafeterias and guiding students to connect the dots between food, waste, natural resources, and wildlife. While not a representative sample of the 100,000 schools that participate in the National School Lunch Program, this research represents one of the largest school waste audit samples collected to date.

Given their indispensable role in preserving the global biodiversity upon which human well-being and sustainable development gains will depend, one might rightly wonder at the near total absence of information pertaining to ranger work prior to the undertaking of this study. The limited materials that did exist rarely included any feedback from rangers themselves. Things are different in this report, where we hear directly from 7,110 public-sector patrol rangers, surveyed at hundreds of sites across 28 countries.

Although a wide diversity of topics were addressed across the 197 questions contained in each survey, an analysis of results points towards certain themes that require urgent action from the governments that employ these rangers...

This is an updated version of Life on the Frontline 2018 assessing ranger welfare perceptions across different countries. It is the largest of its kind ever conducted.

Given the challenging conditions of today's dairy industry, dairy farmers are seeking solutions to enhance their bottom lines. Crossbreeding dairy cows with beef bulls is one such solution that has emerged with the potential to result in wins for both the dairy producer and the environment. Download to read this compelling business case. 

Contextual Water Targets are the first step for any company looking to adopt a Science-Based Target for Water. Taking a contextual approach to setting water performance targets enables a company to become more responsive to local water challenges and to set up internal processes to manage locally specific water performance targets. This case study outlines the work that Levi Strauss & Co. (LS&Co.) has undertaken to apply this principle to its water performance within a part of its supply chain.

The most pressing humanitarian and environmental issues of today–such as health, conservation, infrastructure, and education–are all interconnected. Working in silos will not get us the future we both need and want. To transform to a better future, we must embrace complexity to create sustainable change.

WWF's 2018 Fuller Symposium explored systems thinking as a means to devise creative solutions to complex conservation, development, and environmental challenges. Many of the symposium's speakers, together with WWF scientists and staff, participated in a Book Sprint after the event to distill their collective wisdom on effective ways to understand and change complex systems. Their work resulted in a new book called The Art of Systems Change, which is now free to download.

The 15 authors represent fields as diverse as engineering, computer science, anthropology, and ecology. One thing unites them–their deeply held conviction that the world we live in is complex and interconnected. To truly change the world, we need to shift the way we think and embed complex systems thinking into how we plan, collaborate, and act.

Using The Art of Systems Change

The book has been designed to speak to change-makers working across all scales and sectors who seek to make systemic and lasting change. Part 1 introduces the fundamental tenets of systems thinking and describes their implications for our understanding of the world. Part 2 presents a set of mutually reinforcing principles that can guide our actions as we work to address our most pressing environmental and societal challenges.

In each chapter, we introduce a principle, why it's important, and how to work with it. We also provide simple 'daily practice' prompts that can help you cultivate both your individual and institution's capacity for changing systems. Throughout the book, we share stories and examples of both complex problems and systems and share insights on methods and approaches that can help us work more effectively in complex systems.

Welcome to the systems journey!

Eight principles for systems change

Principle 1: See ourselves in the system. We are all integral parts of the systems we strive to change. By recognizing this, we can tune into the feedback loops between our individual and collective actions, which empowers us to be strong and resilient agents of change.

Suggested Practice: One day a week, document at least five reactions (positive, negative, or neutral) you have to situations you face. What dynamics are behind these situations? Observe over a period of one to two months how your reactions evolve.

Principle 2: Identify our frames. How we frame our problems determines the solutions we seek. By developing the ability to adjust our frames when needed, we increase our capacity to better place problems within the context of the systems that generate them.

Suggested Practice: In your next team meeting when discussing how to address a new problem, ask yourself two questions: How am I defining the boundary of this problem? Who might define the boundary of the problem differently?

Principle 3: Co-create with intention. Creating lasting social and environmental change relies on the behaviors of all actors within a system. Co-creation helps create a more complete understanding of the relationships and structure of a system, and enables actors to effectively tackle systemic issues together.

Suggested Practice: Take a (virtual) lunch break with someone you don‚'t usually spend time with. Over time, watch how your relationship evolves with this person.

Principle 4: Explore time and scale. There are intrinsic time delays between action and response, which impact the results we see and when we see them. Systems cross multiple scales; and complex systems are nested within each other at different scales.

Suggested Practice: For one month, write down a daily observation about the system within which you work. Each day, make another observation about the same system, but focus on a different aspect. Observe how your perceptions of your system evolve over time.

Principle 5: Find simplicity in complexity. While complex, systems can be understood by distilling patterns, trends, or principles that reflect underlying structures and behaviors. Simple solutions can be identified and focused on to create foundations and coalitions for long-term change.

Suggested Practice: Draw a simple picture of your problem that you would use to explain to someone who doesn't know anything about it.

Principle 6: Experiment iteratively. We usually have to act with incomplete understanding of complex systems and their dynamics. Iterative experimentation allows us to adapt our programs as we "learn by doing".

Suggested Practice: Make a small change in your daily routine. It may be as small or as large as you like–the point is to plan, try, experience, get feedback, and improve.

Principle 7:Align structure with change. The structures of formal organizations and institutions can either inhibit or advance our capacity to operate with the dynamics and trajectories of complex systems.

Suggested Practice: Bring together two people who don't know each other from different divisions in your organization, who might not normally engage. Join them for a (virtual) coffee or lunch, and over time observe how and if their relationship evolves.

Principle 8: Act based on evidence. Working within complex systems requires us to be more intentional in what we're measuring and why, and how information is used to inform decisions made by people and organizations at different scales.

Suggested Practice: Identify a stakeholder in your system and ask yourself: What kind of evidence would actually influence them to change the course of action? What information do they need to make decisions? What factors might limit their actions and decision-making process?