Publications

Farmers Post, which partners with the US Postal Service (USPS) to better connect small farmers to local consumers, could revolutionize how we access and consume food today. This report gives an update on current pilot testing in Connecticut and Virginia, presents findings from perspective customer research, and explores what adjustments and next steps are needed to build the best possible program. 

The Phase I report is available here: Farmers Post: Getting Food from Farms to Families

ALIGN team members met in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, in June 2024 for the project‚'s annual meeting. Attendees included staff from WWF-US, WWF-Nepal, WWF-India, WWF-Mongolia, and the Center for Large Landscape Conservation. The team‚'s main objectives were to reflect on ALIGN‚'s achievements and challenges in its third year and strategize for the project‚'s upcoming fourth and final year.

Nature risks are now too big to ignore. The data is clear that nature loss presents a material and systemic threat to economies and businesses across all markets. As a result, policy and regulatory risks, physical and operational risks, reputational risks and legal risks are accelerating faster than many businesses are prepared for.

In the run up to COP30, a group of nature-related investor stewardship initiatives and some of the world‚'s largest investors including PRI‚'s Spring, WWF, FAIRR, NA100, FSDA, IPDD, Generation Investment Management, Storebrand, have come together to produce a briefing pack to help investors navigate this new moment on nature. The pack is designed to:

• Set out a common story of momentum and a unified argument for investor and, in tandem, corporate action on nature.
• Raise the profile of the issue and help investors to get ahead of the risks and seize the opportunity associated with the transition to a nature positive, net zero, just world.
• Demonstrate increasing focus and alignment of investor expectations on nature and what that means for corporate action in 2024.

World Wildlife Fund has a long history of both launching and participating in multistakeholder and precompetitive platforms. In this paper we have distilled common themes and lessons about what has worked well, what hasn‚'t, and other opportunities related to such groups. By drawing these themes together, existing and new platforms can learn from one another to work more effectively to achieve the results they seek at speed and scale.

WWF-Mongolia, with support from the ALIGN Project, contributed to the recent passage of a new national standard for railway and highway barrier fences in Mongolia. The standard will reduce the risk of hundreds of species being caught in barbed fences and keep these fences from restricting wildlife movement.

View a roundup of media coverage on the standard.

The ALIGN project in Nepal collaborated with Radio Sagarmatha to produce four episodes on the need for natural resource safeguards in LI development. The radio program series was produced to raise awareness, provide correct and relevant information to a wide audience. The program was titled "Digo Bikash ra Prakritik Shrot ko Samrakshyan" (Sustainable Development and Natural Resource safeguarding) and provided information on Nepal‚'s wildlife-friendly infrastructure directives to the audiences.

During early 2024, WWF conducted a second annual assessment of 42 asset managers‚' approaches to addressing environmental and social (E&S) risks in seafood-related investments. The objective of this research was to understand if and how investors are improving the way they manage these risks in their seafood portfolios, and where, specifically, additional support may be needed most. This report highlights key findings from this assessment, compares the results against last year‚'s baseline to monitor progress, provides actionable recommendations for asset managers, and directs readers to practical resources to guide next steps.

Overall, this year's assessment found that an increasing number of asset managers are taking action to manage E&S risks related to nature and biodiversity loss, with some specifically starting to address these risks within the seafood sector. Of the 42 asset managers assessed this year, 13 (31%) demonstrated minor or moderate improvements against last year‚'s baseline. However, more progress is needed to ensure that asset managers‚' policies sufficiently prevent and manage their exposure to E&S risks, particularly as they relate to the seafood sector. Consistent with last year, our analysis found that only one of the 42 assessed asset managers has yet developed and publicly disclosed seafood-specific E&S expectations for its investee companies.

See the 2022 baseline assessment.

California dominates commercial agriculture production in the US, growing more than two-thirds of fruits and nuts and nearly half of all vegetables, but this is increasingly unsustainable. As the climate continues to change, some food production will need to shift.

WWF has been working to build a sustainable and equitable commercial-level specialty crop industry in the Mid-Mississippi Delta (western Tennessee, northwestern Mississippi, and eastern Arkansas) to ease the pressure on California, avoid land conversion (transforming natural ecosystems to farmland) elsewhere in the country, and create an equitable engine of growth in the Delta region.

The Phase I report examined the major opportunities and hurdles of such a shift in the Delta. This Phase II report outlines all work on the project to date, providing context on farming in the region today and a vision for the future. It candidly discusses potential challenges to and unintended consequences of large-scale implementation. The report also explores proven successes of innovative business and finance models, and opportunities to break into large markets, concluding with next steps for Phase III of the project.

To learn more, visit our Next California project page.