WWF news

Total won’t drill for oil in Virunga World Heritage Site

Great news from France - oil company Total has made an assurance that it won’t explore for oil within the boundaries of Virunga National Park in Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). At the company’s annual shareholder meeting in Paris on Friday, chairman and CEO Christophe de Margerie responded to questions posed by WWF-France by confirming that Total is making a “commitment to respect the current limits” of the park, Africa’s oldest World Heritage Site.

Prince Charles and Prince William call for action to end wildlife crime

HRH The Prince of Wales (WWF-UK’s President) and HRH The Duke of Cambridge are hosting a high-profile international conference at St James’s Palace on 21 May, in collaboration with the UK government, to focus world attention on the urgent battle to end illegal trade in wildlife (#endwildlifecrime).

Update: see our Storify page all about the royal event here.

You can read the Prince of Wales's speech here in full. And watch this short video of Prince William, Duke of Cambridge, speaking about illegal wildlife trade at the event...

Pandamonium puts the spotlight on art and nature

On 30 May, leading designers Sue Timney and Jason Bruges will put the spotlight on how art can articulate the environmental challenges we face at an exclusive event to mark Pandamonium, an innovative new design exhibition opening to the public this month.

CO2 hits highest level for 3 million years

The level of climate-changing carbon dioxide in the Earth's atmosphere has reached 400 parts per million (400ppm) for the first time in human history.

Elephant massacre at world heritage site - time to end wildlife crime

At least 26 elephants were massacred in the Dzanga Bai World Heritage Site in the Central African Republic this week, after 17 people armed with Kalashnikov rifles entered this unique elephant habitat - it's known locally as the “village of elephants", though it's now being dubbed an “elephant mortuary”.

Lily Cole at the Met Ball, wearing an amazing Amazon wild rubber creation.

Lily Cole’s rainforest rubber rocks the Met Ball

Our celebrity ambassador Lily Cole was so moved by a trip to the Amazon that she made the ultimate eco-fashion statement at this year’s Met Ball (the fashion industry’s annual gala at New York’s Metropolitan Museum). Lily wore a specially-designed Vivienne Westwood dress with a corset made from Amazonian wild rubber from the Sky Rainforest Rescue project area.

Sky and WWF want young reporters to make the news

Know any budding presenters, journalists or reporters aged between 7 and 11? Sky and WWF are offering them a chance to show off their skills in our brilliant Young Reporter competition.

Is your furniture harming tigers in Russian forests?

The UK is contributing to an "epidemic” of illegal logging that’s seriously endangering Russian forests and rare tigers. And it could be down to the furniture we buy.

Newborn rhino already an orphan – this is why we do what we do

It’s barely two weeks since we were all celebrating the birth of two rare rhino calves in Assam in north-east India. Now one of the two mothers is dead. Slaughtered for her horn and claws. And her bewildered calf is struggling to survive without her.

WWF’s Threadless challenge: buy the winning t-shirt now!

We recently teamed up with Threadless, the well-known online design community, to launch a global WWF t-shirt challenge. We’re delighted to say that the winning design - ‘Melting Away’ by Jana Misheva from Macedonia - is now on sale (see photos below). We think it's great, so please buy it, because 25% of the sales will go straight to help WWF’s work, protecting wildlife and wild places around the world.

Earth Hour inspiration goes beyond one hour

WWF’s Earth Hour successfully completed another record-breaking sweep around the planet on Saturday 23 March - from Samoa on one side of the International Date Line to the Cook Islands on the other. Hundreds of millions of people again united to send a clear message - that we're determined to create a sustainable future for our planet.

WWF and Coca-Cola: a year of protecting English rivers

Watch our film to see how we’ve helped to protect and restore unique English chalk streams in the first year of our partnership with Coca-Cola.

Watch Lily Cole in the Amazon as part of Rainforest Week on Sky

Starting today Sky will be dedicating a whole week to showcasing rainforest and environment programming. And we’re especially excited because we'll be launching a new film about Sky Rainforest Rescue: 'Lily Cole's Amazon Adventure'.

WWF discuss ivory and CITES on Channel 5 news

Colin Butfield, head of our campaigns and engagement team, talks about why CITES trade rules needs to be enforced, the importance of the Thai Prime Minister's announcement on ivory, and what we're doing to stop illegal wildlife trade.

Polar bears, WWF and CITES trade bans

CITES listings are all about controlling international trade in wildlife. At WWF we often support complete trade bans, for example when it comes to tigers and rhinos. But right now polar bears are a different case - and we'll tell you why.

Thailand to end ivory trade!

Brilliant news from Bangkok - the Thai prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra has pledged to end the country’s ivory trade. Her statement (at the opening of the latest CITES meeting) is a big step forward in the fight against the illegal international trade that’s endangering the future of elephants and other wildife in Africa.

Thank you so much if you’re one of nearly 1.5 million people who signed the petition to the Thai PM - it shows what can be achieved with people power!

Thailand in spotlight at CITES wildlife trade talks

The future of elephants, rhinos and other endangered wildlife could be affected by decisions taken in Bangkok this week. Thailand is not only playing host to the vital CITES wildlife trade meeting kicking off today, it’s also the focus of a timely international petition to ban the Thai ivory trade.

Timber regulation comes into force across all EU member states

This Sunday sees the launch of the European’s Union Timber Regulation (EUTR), a landmark piece of environmental legislation aimed at preventing the trade in illegal timber and wood products.

Another step on the long road to phasing out discards

Last night, European Fisheries Ministers took another step towards phasing out discarding fish back to the water, the much publicised and disgraceful practice whereby up to 50% of fish in certain European fisheries are thrown back dead.

Ivory emergency: CITES could penalise countries who don’t tackle illegal trade

WWF is calling for sanctions to be imposed upon countries failing to tackle the illegal trade in ivory at an international meeting in Bangkok next month.

We’re urging the UK and the 176 other governments attending the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) meeting to act to stop the illegal trade.