People and Communities Stories

  • Flow Lines

    WWF Magazine: Winter 2020
    Keeping water flowing for people and wildlife in the Kavango-Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area will take action at every level. Here's what WWF is doing for it.
    Aerial photo of three elephants wading through water
  • Predator-proof pens protect community livelihoods in Nepal

    September 11, 2020

    New predator-proof pens improved both financial and psychological well-being for communities, who no longer having to guard their livestock throughout the night and can feel secure that their livelihood is safe.

    Woman in front of pen of goats in Khata corridor, Nepal
  • Gaining safe water access amid the ongoing pandemic crisis

    August 27, 2020

    Conservation, communities, and corporate come together to implement a new infrastructure project, giving two Honduras communities access to drinking water in their homes.

    A group of Honduran men in a forest surrounded by bags of concrete and other materials to build a new water system
  • COVID & the Ba’Aka Tribe of Dzanga-Sangha

    August 06, 2020

    In the Central African Republic, WWF supports the Indigenous Ba’Aka tribe of Dzanga-Sangha in social distancing to protect themselves from COVID-19. 

    A group of Ba'Aka people walking into the forest
  • An all-female ranger team challenges the workforce gender gap

    July 30, 2020

    In Northeast China, the only all-female ranger team monitors the region's tiger range. 

    An all-female team of rangers treks through a snowy forest in China looking for clues of big cat whereabouts
  • How four communities value and protect their mangroves

    July 23, 2020

    Around the world, communities depend on mangroves for food, protection, and income. These coastal forests provide for communities and the communities, in turn, protect the mangroves. It’s a relationship found all over the world across the more than 100 countries where mangroves guard the coast. Here are four places where a snapshot tells the story.

    Patroling a mangrove forest for poachers
  • Safe Zone

    WWF Magazine: Fall 2020
    In the heart of the Central African Republic, Dzanga-Sangha stands as a model for stability and peace—and a safe place for elephants and gorillas to roam.
    Ba’Aka elders facing camera
  • In the Colombian Amazon, a forest explorer catalogs a community’s resources

    Marisela Silva Parra, 41, is the only female member of a WWF-supported group of local farmers and community leaders who are helping their community realize the value of its natural resources. The group calls themselves Los Exploradores—The Explorers.

    Portrait of Marisela Silva Parra standing in the forest with a clipboard
  • Blood-free honey — How a safer harvesting program is reducing deadly human-tiger conflicts

    May 12, 2020

    WWF India, in association with the Sundarbans Biosphere Reserve (SBR) Directorate, has implemented a program to significantly reduce the number of tiger-related deaths of honey collectors.

    Honey collection in the Sundarbans
  • Rosebud Sioux Tribe will create the largest Native-owned and managed bison herd in North America

    May 07, 2020

    The Rosebud Sioux tribe committed 28,000 acres of native grassland for the creation of a new plains bison herd. With a capacity to support 1,500 animals, the Wolakota Buffalo Range will become North America’s largest Native American owned and managed bison herd.

    A lone bison on the Fort Peck Tribes Cultural Buffalo Herd Ranch Facility
  • The first rule of gorilla tracking? Listen well

    May 05, 2020

    Twenty years ago, a gorilla habitation program provided the Ba’Aka living near the Dzanga Sanga Park with a new opportunity. And by 2020, Dzanga-Sangha employed more than 50 Ba’Aka as gorilla trackers.

    Ossolo Dacko, a BaAka tracker for the western lowland gorilla habituation program, Dzanga-Sangha Special Reserve, Central African Republic
  • In the Colombian Amazon, an Indigenous leader helps map her people’s territory

    In partnership with local Indigenous organization Azicatch, WWF is supporting the work of Ecosystem Services Assessment Technical Teams, which combines traditional knowledge with modern conservation practice. The aim is to strengthen Indigenous decision-making and governance and create an environmental management plan for their territory.

    Chela Umire makes notes during a forest assessment
  • Citizen scientists help conserve Nepal’s tigers from behind the lens

    In Nepal, citizen scientists are working with biologists from WWF to help protect tigers, rhinos, elephants, and other wildlife found in Bardia National Park.

    Sabita Malla (front), tiger expert at WWF Nepal, is installing a camera trap with citizen scientists responsible for monitoring tigers in the Khata Corridor. Most visible citizen scientist here is Chabbi Thara Magar.
  • How community banking empowers women in Tanzania

    March 06, 2020

    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.

    Sijali Kipuli in a VICOBA introductory meeting attentively listening to the facilitators in 2006.
  • A discussion on gender, equity, and people’s rights with WWF’s Althea Skinner

    March 04, 2020

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

    Althea Skinner
  • Working together for grasslands

    The Northern Great Plains is one of the world’s last great, remaining grasslands. Across its 183 million acres, nearly 132 million remain intact. Among those acres that are still intact, approximately 70% is privately owned, and often by ranching families.

    Riding a horse in Nebraska, United States
  • With access to fresh water, a school garden grows

    February 04, 2020

    In 2009, principal and teacher Marcia Novakc da Silva decided to join forces to start a community rainwater project, led by the organization Incra and supported by WWF. The work is one of  several projects for the recovery of the springs and water supply in region.

    Student waters plant in school garden
  • Rapid Response Teams act as a bridge between wildlife and people

    January 16, 2020

    Established by WWF Nepal in 2016, RRTs help to engage communities in wildlife protection efforts, manage human-wildlife conflict, and monitor poaching and other illegal activities. Today, there are nearly 60 RRTs across Nepal.

    Narayan Shahi from the Rapid Response Team is arriving in a house to help villagers to deal with a wildlife conflict in Khata Corridor, Nepal.
  • Communities and Conservation: Passion, Commitment, and Resiliency

    November 20, 2019

    This is a challenging time for conservation. But every day, more and more brave people are looking beyond those obstacles, not giving in to despair, and making enlightened choices that can change our planet for the better.

    Agness Musutu, WWF's Young Expert Professional for the Freshwater Programme, walking along the edge of the Luangwa River at sunset in Mfuwe, Zambia
  • Empowering women and families to build healthy communities and a healthy planet

    Meeta is a young mother from India. Back-to-back pregnancies and heavy housework responsibilities took a toll on her health and wellbeing. Noting her declining health, a neighborhood social worker invited Meeta and her husband Ramkishore to participate in a CARE maternal health program that fostered open communication, education and access to family planning information.

    Overshoot
  • Across Mozambique and Tanzania, women show us how to improve communities and protect our planet

    As WWF works with communities around the world to preserve habitats, wildlife, and natural resources, we know that it is critical to engage both women and men for the best results—environmentally, socially, and economically.

    A group of women and children from the Sicubir community, Angoche, Mozambique
  • In Mozambique, banning fishing leads to a bigger catch

    Pulizica, a small fishing community in Mozambique’s Primeiras e Segundas archipelago, is home to the newest fish sanctuary established by the CARE-WWF Alliance, a global partnership to address the root causes of poverty and environmental degradation. How well is the protected area recovering declining fish stocks in the region?

    Fisherman gathers seine nets from the water on the Ilha de Mafamede, Mozambique. Mafamede is one of the protected islands that comprise Primeiras e Segundas.
  • Cultivating sustainable livelihoods and environmental resiliency in Mozambique

    In Mozambique’s Primeiras e Segundas region, villagers are taking part in a savings and loan association that’s revolutionizing how they manage their financial and natural resources.

    Woman in Mangrove James Morgan WW146954
  • Saving a beloved home along the Luangwa River in Zambia

    June 21, 2018

    The Luangwa River is one of the longest remaining free-flowing rivers in Southern Africa. It flows through an area which boasts some of the most pristine habitats left in Zambia for elephants, lions, leopards and a myriad of other wildlife. A dam has been proposed on the Luangwa that would flood almost the entire Luembe chiefdom, destroying habitats and displacing thousands of people.  

    Two women use the river to wash up while avoiding the threat of crocodiles along the Luangwa River.