Stories

A pair of mega dams in construction on the Santa Cruz River is expected to significantly alter the flow of the Santa Cruz river and harm a variety of local species, including hooded grebes. But due to an incomplete environmental impact assessment of the project, nobody knows just how much damage it could cause. Hooded grebes live only in Santa Cruz Province, where they were discovered in 1974. In the 1980s, their population numbered around 5,000. But since then, their population has declined by more than 80%.

Titi shrimp, or pomada, are wild shrimp, native to Ecuador, and they are harvested around the Gulf of Guayaquil by both trawlers and artisanal fishermen using a unique kind of trap that doesn’t exist anywhere else in the world. WWF-Ecuador has been working with both the industrial and artisanal fishermen to ensure that the fishery is sustainable.

A pair of mega dams in construction on the Santa Cruz river’s banks could flood more than 135 square miles of the surrounding region--an area almost twice as big as Buenos Aires--and transform Argentina’s last free-flowing glacial river into a series of brackish pools.

This year’s Living Planet Report shows that populations of animals—including mammals, birds, fish, reptiles, and amphibians—plummeted by 60% between 1970 and 2014. But those living in freshwater are experiencing a far more drastic decline: 83% since 1970.

In an enormous setback for wildlife conservation, China announced it will allow hospitals to use tiger bone and rhino horn from captive-bred animals for traditional medicine. The decision reverses a decades-old ban that has been instrumental in preventing the extinction of endangered tigers and rhinos.

WWF and an array of actors are working to protect elephant habitats, scale up antipoaching efforts, and shut down illegal ivory markets to make sure elephants can continue their lives in the wild.

Around the world, humans produce an estimated 1.3 billion tons of plastic waste per year, a number that is set to increase to 2.2 billion by 2025. In countries such as Ecuador that have limited garbage collection services, some of this plastic waste inevitably ends up back in the oceans or on beaches, where it has the potential to harm and human health.

Nearly 124,000 WWF activists from 49 states reached out to their member of Congress to support a bipartisan bill to take a stand on ocean plastic, and their impressive efforts paid off.

In order to learn more about the population status of this species, a scientific expedition set out to install satellite transmitters on pink river dolphins in Peru.

More than 100,000 Asian elephants may have existed at the beginning of the 20th century, roaming from the Persian Gulf to India and China. But their numbers have dropped in the past three generations.

In 1930, as many as 10 million wild elephants roamed huge swaths of the African continent. But decades of poaching and conflict have since decimated African elephant populations.

Wild animals are feeling the effects of climate change. WWF’s new Wildlife Adaptation Innovation Fund is testing innovative, on-the-ground projects to help at-risk species adapt.

In May, two Amur—or Siberian—tigers were released into Russia’s far eastern Evreiskaya Province, joining nine other rehabilitated tigers in the species’ historical habitat.

WWF president and CEO Carter Roberts sat down with DR. E. O. WILSON, Pulitzer Prize-winning author, Harvard University Entomology Faculty Emeritus, and the world’s leading expert on ants.

Each year, WWF uses data from the USDA to track the conversion of grasslands to cropland across the Great Plains of North America and compare the loss to that of previous years. Here's what we found.

These iconic interlocking toys have long since evolved beyond rectangular bricks.

We left the warm confines of our van and stepped out onto a scenic viewpoint in Yellowstone’s Lamar Valley. Our group was focused on finding one of Yellowstone’s original inhabitants: the wolf.

Kruger leads WWF’s efforts to help polar bears and other Arctic marine mammals coexist alongside people in an increasingly warmer and ice-free Arctic.

The streams of Bristol Bay, Alaska, churn with the world’s largest sockeye salmon run and nourish diverse communities and wildlife as well as support the seafood industry.

“Each of us has the power to make good things happen.”

In the US, the energy we use in our homes is a significant source of human-caused greenhouse gas emissions. You can help lower those emissions by greening your home’s energy sources. Here’s how.

Turning wild elephants into an asset for locals is at the heart of protection efforts for Kui Buri National Park.

Climate justice champion and indigenous rights activist Nina Gualinga relentlessly advocates for protection of the Ecuadorian Amazon, its wildlife, and the people who depend on it.

China made history by banning elephant ivory sales in 2017; now WWF is working to stop the demand.