World Wildlife Fund, Inc.

WWF’s vision is to build a future in which people live in harmony with nature. Our mission is to conserve nature and reduce the most pressing threats to the diversity of life on Earth.

We focus on six major goals in the areas of Climate, Freshwater, Forests, Oceans, Wildlife, and Food. We also seek to address three key drivers of environmental degradation: markets, finance, and poor governance. Together, these efforts propel coordinated approaches toward meeting our goals:

1. Climate: Ensure a climate-resilient and zero carbon world, powered by renewable energy.
2. Freshwater: Ensure the health of the world’s major basins is improving or maintained.
3. Forests: Conserve the world’s more important forests to sustain nature’s diversity, benefit our climate, and support human well-being.
4. Oceans: Ensure a resilient ocean sustains marine life and functioning ecosystems that support rich biodiversity, food security, and sustainable livelihoods.
5. Wildlife: Ensure the world’s most iconic species—including tigers, rhinos, and elephants—
are secured and recovering in the wild.
6. Food: Drive sustainable food systems to conserve nature and feed humanity.

By compounding the efforts in all six goal areas and working in partnership with foundations, governments, businesses, communities, individuals, and our more than six million supporters, WWF can conserve many of the world’s most ecologically important regions. To accomplish this, WWF aims to
• protect and restore species and their habitats
• co-design conservation efforts with local communities and support them in leading these efforts
• transform markets and policies to reduce the impact of the production and consumption of commodities
• ensure that the value of nature is reflected in decisions made by individuals, communities, governments, and businesses
• mobilize hundreds of millions of people to support conservation

Current international commitments to protect nature do not match the scale of the threats our planet is facing. In 2021, world leaders came together to set new goals for the Paris Climate Accord. And in 2022, they agreed to a new Global Biodiversity Framework within the UN Convention of Biological Diversity. WWF actively participated in both the climate and biodiversity summits, urging nations to move swiftly to put us on a path to net-zero emissions by 2050, and to halt and reverse nature loss by the end of this decade. In the years ahead WWF will work with governments, companies, and other actors to help ensure the successful implementation of these agreements.

WWF is a global network of 60 closely aligned national organizations dedicated to protecting biodiversity, promoting sustainability, and reconciling the needs of people and nature. We work in more than 100 countries. As partners in a multinational network, WWF offices work with a local-to-global scope, combining field-based work and community engagement with cutting-edge science and policy interventions at the national and international levels. This allows us to address the complex challenges of conservation in the 21st century.

The ability to develop and sustain smart, creative partnerships—with local communities, national governments, other NGOs, corporations, universities, or multilateral institutions—is one of our hallmarks. As an international union of national organizations that are integral parts of their societies, WWF is able to see things from many different perspectives, to engage at multiple levels, and to work with varied interests toward solutions beyond the reach of any one group, one interest, or one sector alone. The strength of our globally known brand empowers this work as well.

Examples include our partnerships with the American Red Cross on green reconstruction in the wake of disasters; with CARE on sustainable development, poverty alleviation, and climate change adaptation in coastal East Africa; with The Coca-Cola Company on global freshwater conservation; with three nations in the Amazon on securing long-term funding to create new protected areas and keep existing protected areas intact; and with the World Bank and the tiger range states of Asia on tiger conservation.

WWF employs over 6,000 people and has more than 6 million supporters globally. Headquartered in Washington, DC, WWF-US is the largest partner in this network, with over 1 million members in the US and a global presence in its own right; we directly manage conservation program offices from the Arctic to the Amazon, and from the Northern Great Plains to Nepal.

WWF was founded in 1961 with a primary focus on species conservation. That remains central to our mission, but more than 50 years of field experience has taught us that conservation is as much or more about humans as it is about other species. If we want people to work for conservation, we must first make conservation work for them. That is the principle that guides our efforts across the globe.

Launching “Enduring Earth”
In 2022 WWF joined The Nature Conservancy, The Pew Charitable Trusts, and ZOMALAB, the family office of Ben and Lucy Ana Walton, to launch Enduring Earth. Central to the initiative’s approach is Project Finance for Permanence (PFP), a model that fully funds conservation projects to ensure durable and scalable impact. Enduring Earth’s goal is to deliver 20 PFP transactions by 2030 to enable nations to accelerate durable conservation that benefits local communities and achieves biodiversity, climate, and sustainable development goals.

Securing Colombia’s Natural Heritage
In 2022, the Government of Colombia, with a coalition of partners including WWF, demonstrated its commitment to conservation by signing a joint declaration to launch a new PFP initiative called Heritage Colombia, which secures $245 million USD to permanently protect 32 million hectares of iconic Colombian landscapes and seascapes.

Securing Coastal Ecosystems in Belize
In 2021, the Government of Belize, WWF, and The Nature Conservancy signed an MOU to secure protection of the country’s marine and coastal ecosystems through a PFP.

Mobilizing Partners and Governments for Global Climate Action
The 2021 UN climate conference marked a major moment for global climate progress. Leading up to the conference, and throughout the negotiations, WWF mobilized the private sector, US government, local governments, and others to deliver new commitments and develop clear implementation plans.

Working with Companies to Conserve Forests
In FY22, Forests Forward grew to include seven companies, most recently welcoming Procter & Gamble and Sylvamo. In 2021, HP Inc. committed $80 million to address the impacts on forests of paper used in HP printers. By 2022, HP and WWF identified three critical landscapes (Australia, Brazil, Peru) in which to expand their joint work. The partnership will impact nearly 1 million acres of forest landscapes and sets the bar for corporate responsibility for even the indirect environmental impacts of business.

Progress Toward Global Plastics Treaty
In 2022, a WWF poll found overwhelming public demand for a global treaty to address the plastic crisis, and the UN Environment Assembly committed to establishing a legally binding international agreement by 2024. WWF played a key role by engaging the US Department of State and rallying support from business leaders, and WWF activists in the US, who sent nearly 800,000 messages calling for the treaty.

Celebrating Progress During the Year of the Tiger
In 2010, leaders pledged to try to double the number of tigers in the wild by 2022. WWF and partners leveraged that moment to assess progress, and to apply lessons learned to better inform the world’s approach to tiger conservation. In FY23, the IUCN’s tiger population survey estimated that wild tigers increased from about 3,200 in 2010 to about 4,500 in 2022. And Nepal announced that its population of wild tigers had nearly tripled since 2009.