Stories

WWF president and CEO Carter Roberts talks with Secretary of the Smithsonian Lonnie Bunch about connecting people to nature and what it takes to get the job done.

The disease COVID-19 has caused a health crisis worldwide. We don’t know the full and devastating reach of this pandemic yet, but we do understand how it underscores the destructive impacts of wildlife trade and consumption on human health and societies.

The conservation and restoration of forests is a necessary component of a future where humanity is better able to manage and cope with the emergence of new infectious diseases. Without landscapes that balance the needs of both nature and people, the world will continue only to react to global health crises instead of preventing them.

Leigh Henry and her colleagues from WWF’s Tiger’s Alive team visited Thailand, Laos, and Vietnam to continue the work of ending the illegal tiger trade and phasing out tiger farms.

Right now, reducing waste is ever more important and we can all look at how to do that in our own kitchens.

There are many approaches that governments can take to mitigate their climate emissions and prepare for inevitable change, but sometimes overlooked is the role nature itself can play. Nature-based solutions are ecosystem conservation, management, and restoration projects designed to address a wide range of challenges while also benefiting biodiversity and human well-being.

As the world is facing a global health crisis, the foundations of our food system are also called into question, along with the interactions between people and the natural resources we all depend on.

Tiger King, Netflix’s new docu-series, is roaring with popularity, but behind the drama, there is a frightful truth: captive tigers in the United States are a significant conservation issue and could impact tigers in the wild.

In a significant step forward for nature and communities that depend on the mighty Mekong River, the Cambodian government has abandoned plans to build the Sambor hydropower dam and has put a 10-year moratorium on any new dams on the Mekong mainstem.

In Guatemala, thousands of people call the Teculutan and Pasabien watersheds home. Under the cover of iconic cloud forests, rivers flow down from the mountainous region called the Sierra de Las Minas; providing fresh water for nature and these communities, for drinking, hygiene and sanitation, agriculture, as well as for business operations and so much more.

As we all adjust to this ever-evolving situation, we hope it's comforting to know you are not dealing with this alone. Here are a few activities to help you learn about and explore our natural world from home.

It's one of the most common questions we receive—and a good one. The answer comes down to a single word: intention.

The latest survey assessing the population of monarch butterflies that winter in Mexico indicates a population decrease of 53% since the previous season. In the 2019-2020 wintering season, the area of forest occupied by monarch butterflies was 7 acres, down from 15 acres in the 2018 - 2019 season.

Every year, WWF activists head to Capitol Hill to meet with their representatives about pertinent conservation issues as part of Lobby Day. We spoke with three participants from around the country to learn why they’re attending Lobby Day and what issues are most important to them.

In Tanzania, many urban and rural areas still function under traditional customs that put women at a social and economic disadvantage. Fortunately, those discriminatory traditions, norms, and stereotypes are being challenged. Sijali Kipuli from Somanga Village in Tanzania shows us how a social system in savings and credits can economically liberate the poorest people and empower women.

Abstract

At about 6,900 meters below the ocean surface, a team of scientists discovered a new species. One of four specimens of the crustacean had been polluted with plastic before it had even become known to science.

At the close of 2019, Congress reached final agreement on year-long legislation to fund the U.S. government, including some big wins for wildlife. The bill included significant increases for programs that help to conserve global wildlife populations and habitat and to combat wildlife trafficking.

WWF’s lead on socially inclusive conservation, Althea Skinner is one of WWF’s core experts on the intersection between conservation and human rights.

We can and must rethink our approach to development—what it looks like, what it’s delivering, and how it’s meeting our needs—to ensure that it's more useful for people and less harmful to wildlife.

Once virtually extinct in Russia, the Persian leopard is showing signs of a comeback in the region. Restoring a population takes time so each sighting of a leopard in the wild stirs excitement.

Human health and the health of our environment are inextricably linked. Our collective resilience, well-being, nutrition, and ability to avert disease is fully connected to the food we eat, the water we drink, the air we breathe, and the ways we interact with nature.

An estimated 1 million pangolins were trafficked in the last ten years, though this number may be conservative given the volume of recent pangolin scale seizures. Learn what WWF and partners are doing to stop the extinction of this elusive mammal.

In a first-of-its-kind study, the Global Futures Report calculates the economic cost of nature’s decline across 140 countries using a new economic and environmental modeling technique to assess what the macroeconomic impact would be if the world didn’t act now to protect the planet. The United States will see the losses of annual Gross Domestic Product (GDP) totaling $83 billion taken from its economy each year by 2050 if the world doesn’t act urgently to address the global environmental crisis.