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. WWF is now working 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 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.

Shaping the New Global Biodiversity Framework: Other effective area-based conservation measures, or OECMs, bring greater recognition of and support for sites beyond traditionally protected areas and national parks, including Indigenous lands and privately conserved areas that deliver on biodiversity goals. In June 2023, WWF cohosted a workshop on OECMs attended by nearly 50 participants from 14 Latin American and Caribbean countries. In December 2022, more than 190 countries approved a UN agreement to halt and reverse nature loss by 2030 with OECMs embedded in the plan.

Advancing Historic Climate Action: In FY23 WWF advocated for the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act. The bill was signed into law in August 2023, unleashing $370 billion in historic investments to help the US meet its climate change commitments under the Paris Agreement.

Protecting Alaska's Bristol Bay: After years of efforts to block a proposed mine and protect Alaska's Bristol Bay, the Indigenous-led Bristol Bay Victory Challenge raised $20 million to purchase a conservation easement that will permanently protect its land and waters. More than 650,000 WWF supporters signed petitions aimed at stopping the mine and securing the lands and waters that support the region.

Disrupting Wildlife Crime: To stop wildlife crime, WWF equips rangers with essentials like thermal imaging cameras, deploys dogs to sniff out contraband in transit, and convenes multinational tech companies to detect and block illegal trade online. We target hot spots like Southeast Asia, a key consumer and transit hub for elephant ivory and top market for rhino horn.

Safeguarding Rhinos in Namibia: In Namibia, home to the world's largest population of black rhinos, there are 86 conservancies where communities exercise the right to manage wildlife and benefit from it. The conservancy model has been such a success that no rhinos were poached in Namibian conservancies in 2022.

Future-Proofing Global River Systems: In March 2023, WWF played a leading role at the UN Water Conference and built momentum to stop poorly designed or located dams, protect wildlife, and safeguard communities. We also helped announce the WWF-supported Freshwater Challenge to restore more than 186,000 miles of rivers and more than 860 million acres of wetlands by 2030.

Celebrating Progress During the Year of the Tiger: After many years of advocacy, the Big Cat Public Safety Act, intended to help prevent captive tigers from ending up in the illegal trade, was passed and signed into law in December 2022.

Pushing for a Global Plastics Treaty: In March 2022, 175 nations established a global treaty for plastic pollution at the UN Environmental Assembly. In September 2022, WWF and partners launched the Business Coalition for a Global Plastics Treaty to support an international agreement that accelerates progress. Throughout FY23, WWF worked to ensure that the final treaty will deliver on our vision of ending plastic pollution.