Publications

This document is a brief summary of the full 2017 map book, Guardians of the Headwaters II: Biodiversity, Water, and Climate in Six Snow Leopard Landscapes. This map book follows a 2014 regional assessment, Guardians of the Headwaters I: Snow leopards, Water Provision, and Climate Vulnerability, Maps and Analysis. To download the full reports, and for more on methods, analyses, findings, and maps, please go to www.thirdpolegeolab.org.

The World Wildlife Fund engaged AECOM Technical Services, Inc. (AECOM) to undertake a desk-based review of publicly available guidance, standards, tools, methods and frameworks used to assess sustainability and climate resilience of infrastructure development projects. The purpose of the review was to understand what types of tools were being used in practice, the scale of their application and if any could be identified as best practice and thus promoted more widely. AECOM reviewed a range of tools used by key financial institutions and infrastructure sustainability assessment bodies, which included:

1. Asian Development Bank (ADB)
2. Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB)
3. African Development Bank (AfDB)
4. Agence Française de Développement (AFD)
5. European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD)
6. European Investment Bank (EIB)
7. Inter-American Development Bank (IDB)
8. KfW Development Bank (KfW)
9. World Bank (including IBRD and IDA)
10. International Finance Corporation (IFC) 1
11. BREEAM Infrastructure
12. CEEQUAL
13. Green Guidelines for the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI)
14. Envision®
15. SuRe® Standard
16. Equator Principles

In undertaking the review, it was found that each of the financial institutions used environmental and social (E&S) assessments as part of their decision making process in financing the project. Some of the financial institutions reviewed also use climate risk screening tools as part of their initial screening such as the ADB and AfDB; the AFD and EIB use carbon footprint tools as part of their screening process.

The infrastructure standards and assessment tools cater for the design phase (i.e., the project level design) promoting low impact design, sustainable resourcing and carbon emission reductions, amongst other factors; as well as focusing on elements of the planning phases (i.e. larger and wider scale development plans which tend to be carried out pre-project level design).

There is significant scope for more work to be undertaken in the planning phase, as action at the start of the process could have a substantial impact in ensuring infrastructure developments are in line with national development agendas and requirements. Financial institutions should also ensure that projects being financed are in line with national development agendas, and can support the countries implementation of international commitments such as Nationally Determined Contributions or the Sustainable Development Goals.

WWF is working to transform sectors where we see potential to make the biggest impact. It‚'s estimated that 40% of food waste happens in customer-facing businesses like restaurants, supermarkets and hotels. Hotels, which serve $35 billion dollars in catering and banquets each year in the US, are an ideal test bed to learn, iterate, drive waste reduction, and help reshape the food service industry as leaders in food waste reduction.

To help the hospitality industry do its part in fighting food waste and helping local communities meet the needs of the food insecure, World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and the American Hotel and Lodging Association (AHLA), with support from The Rockefeller Foundation, created this toolkit to challenge the industry to prevent food waste, donate what cannot be prevented and divert what remains.

Learn more at HotelKitchen.org

The ability to track seafood from bait to plate—traceability—is an important tool in the effort to fish sustainably and end illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing. WWF is collaborating with FishWise, Future of Fish and the Global Food Traceability Center to as part of the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation’s Ocean and Seafood Markets Initiative (OSMI) to promote global seafood traceability standards, educate stakeholders, and design tools for direct engagement with industry and the market. 

With support from the USAID-funded WWF Asia High Mountains Project, UWICER organized Bhutan’s second National Water Symposium in May 2017. This symposium brought together water resources professionals and agencies to take stock of current water resource knowledge in Bhutan and to identify priority areas for future research and cooperation on water resource management. This publication contains summaries of presentations given at the symposium. (43 page Symposium Proceedings)

The Government of Nepal’s climate-smart snow leopard landscape management plan for its Eastern Himalaya Global Snow Leopard and Ecosystem Protection (GSLEP) priority landscape. Produced with technical assistance from the USAID-funded WWF Asia High Mountains Project, this plan covers Nepal’s Himalayan region from Langtang National Park north of Kathmandu to the Kangchenjunga Conservation Area in the northeast corner of the country and includes both Sagarmatha and Makalu Barun National Parks. (78 page Conservation Management Plan)

There are few investments more powerful or permanent than education. At WWF, we see firsthand how education can improve and accelerate the ability of individuals, communities, and societies to plan and implement conservation action. Thanks to the continued commitment, EFN grants to 2,529 individuals and organizations around the world have helped thousands of people gain the education and skills necessary to take action for the planet.

This guide is designed for government or non-profit employees, development officials, river basin managers, private sector representatives, community organizers, academics, journalists, or any others interested in acting to secure the health and future of a freshwater resource. It provides an overview of river basin report cards and their utility, as well as guidance on how to create a report card and leverage the process and results to drive change.

The extent to which Belize‚'s economy depends on tourism generated by the threatened Belize Barrier Reef World Heritage site has been revealed for the first time today by a new report launched by WWF and partner organizations. The report, Natural Heritage, Natural Wealth, aims to highlight the incredible resource the country is at risk of losing.