WWF and DFID – natural partners
WWF’s strong and effective partnership with the UK government to tackle overseas poverty continues to go from strength to strength.
Through the Department for International Development (DFID), the government has increased its funding of our joint work from £10.7m to £12.7m over three years to 2011. This will enable us to accelerate our work to reduce poverty and improve environmental management within communities in Latin America and Africa.
“WWF and DFID are showing that good environmental governance has positive environmental impacts and improves the well-being of people – especially the poor who directly rely on natural resources the most,” said Head of Programme Development, Dominic White.
Globally, 70% of people living in poverty rely on natural resources for their livelihoods. More than a billion people rely primarily on fish for protein, and forest resources support the livelihoods of a further billion.
In Brazil, we have helped some 45,000 people on the floodplains of the Amazon to benefit from new land tenure policies that give them a stake in their own natural resources. And in Peru, not only has the oil company Pluspetrol been held to account by local communities with our support, but a landmark agreement has also been reached to limit pollution of the Corrientes River.
And in Peru, we have supported action to limit pollution of the Corrientes river from oil extraction activities. The resulting landmark agreement between the government, local communities and oil company Pluspetrol included a commitment to re-inject contaminated water back into the soil. Preliminary monitoring, carried out by indigenous people with training supported by WWF, has since shown indications that the ecological health of the river has improved.
Meanwhile, as a result of our engagement in Tanzania, the environment is now strongly embedded in the country’s poverty reduction strategy, with the Department of the Environment seeing a tenfold increase in its budget.
“If properly implemented, this will touch the lives of millions of people who rely entirely on natural resources for their income,” said Dominic White.
Moving in the same direction
Creating a sustainable future for the world’s poorest communities cannot be achieved in isolation. Our increasingly interlinked global economy means that the way natural resources are consumed in the UK and every other country influences the future of us all. That’s why WWF is encouraging sustainable thinking in every branch of government, including DFID – ensuring that there is a coherent approach both in the UK and internationally to delivering a low carbon future for the planet. Only this kind of joined-up thinking will deliver the One Planet Future WWF is striving for – where people and nature thrive together.
If properly implemented, this will touch the lives of millions of people who rely entirely on natural resources for their income.
Dominic White, Head of Programme Development
