2023 was a big year for our planet – and for all of us.
The climate and nature crisis can feel overwhelming, and it might seem difficult to know if progress is being made to address it. But it is. We’ve seen signs of nature recovering and moments worth celebrating.
We still have a long way to go and action needs to happen much faster, but we have reasons for hope. More people than ever before – people like you – are helping to protect and restore our one shared home.
Together we can bring our world back to life.
Thanks to your support in 2023, we’re:
Initiating new legislation to protect forests
Initiating new legislation to protect forests
Forests around the world are home to a huge 80% of wildlife that lives on land, as well as sucking up one third of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions. Despite forests being vital for nature, people, and a stable climate, we’ve been failing to protect our forest life system. The destruction of forests around the world has only been getting worse, and a big part of this has been the food and products we buy, which are driving the loss of forests around the world.
For several years, WWF and our supporters have been campaigning for the UK Government to introduce new measures to combat illegal deforestation. This year, more than 10,000 WWF supporters wrote to their MPs to demand that they take action to protect nature – including forests – while WWF convened a joint letter to the Prime Minister from seven of the UK’s leading supermarkets, urging him to introduce deforestation laws. Finally, in December, the Government announced that they will be bringing in new legislation which will ensure that businesses, like supermarkets, will no longer sell products that come from land that has been illegally deforested.
While there is still much more to be done to end deforestation in UK supply chains for good, this is an important step towards protecting and restoring our precious forests.
Using robots to plant seeds of hope
Using robots to plant seeds of hope
Seagrass stores carbon and is a vital habitat for biodiversity. It can also help protect communities from the impacts of coastal erosion and flooding. Yet, we’ve lost up to 92% of UK seagrass meadows.
WWF Cymru are working with local partners and communities to restore seagrass meadows. In 2020 we successfully planted two hectares of seagrass meadows in Dale. Since then, we’ve launched a project to restore 10 hectares of seagrass meadow in Anglesey and the Llyn Peninsula and have already supported the planting of 240,000 seeds in North Wales and a collection of over one million seeds for further planting through the Seagrass Ocean Rescue project in Wales.
Project Seagrass and Swansea University are developing and trialling innovative technology and methods for restoring seagrass. For example, in 2023 in Dale, the project ran successful trials to plant seagrass seeds using the Reefgen Robot planter. This high-tech robot has the potential to plant at larger scales than current methods which could make it easier and cheaper to scale up restoration.
WWF aims to support the planting of nine million seeds across 18 hectares in the UK by the end of 2026.
Saving Our Wild Isles
Saving Our Wild Isles
The UK is one of the most nature depleted countries in the world. The nature of our wild isles is under tremendous strain, from overfishing and climate change to habitat loss and intensive farming.
In our first major collaborative campaign – Save Our Wild Isles – WWF came together with the RSPB and the National Trust to call for an immediate end to the destruction of UK nature and urgent action for its recovery.
The campaign launched off the back of the BBC landmark series Wild Isles, hosted by Sir David Attenborough, and co-produced by WWF, RSPB, & The Open University. Wild Isles reached over 10 million people, 73% of which have taken or are considering taking action for nature. This included powerful businesses in numerous sectors standing up for nature, and leaders from our three leading political parties publicly committing to act for nature, all thanks to the Save Our Wild Isles campaign.
A major part of the campaign included the launch of the Save Our Wild Isles Community Fund, a partnership between WWF, the RSPB and Aviva. Through the fund, 250 groups from all over the UK were supported. Community groups have raised over £2m for nature, including Aviva giving £1m to support projects aiming to protect and restore nature in their local area.
A People's Plan for Nature
A People's Plan for Nature
2023 saw the launch of the People’s Plans for Nature, the first UK-wide citizen’s assembly for nature. 103 people from all walks of life and all parts of the UK came together to decide an action plan to reverse the decline of nature. For the first time, we have a plan for what must happen to save UK nature created by people from across the UK.
Decades of damage have pushed wildlife and habitats to the brink. Thirty-eight million birds have vanished from our skies in the last 50 years, and 97% of wildflower meadows have been lost since the Second World War. Experts believe that only 5% of UK land is effectively protected for nature.
Now, the People’s Plan for Nature is challenging our leaders with a public demand for immediate and sweeping change. The Plan calls for nature to have a voice at the centre of decision-making; and for these decisions to be made fairly, with the public involved, so that people’s livelihoods are also protected.
Members of the People’s Assembly for Nature have met with the Environment Secretary, the Leader of the Liberal Democrats, Peers for the Planet and the Environment APPG, including Green MP Caroline Lucas. They’ve also been interviewed on national TV, radio and in print and met with UK business leaders to call for immediate action.
A nature-friendly future for farming in Wales
A nature-friendly future for farming in Wales
New laws in Wales are set to transform the country’s farming system - the Agriculture (Wales) Act. Thanks to WWF Cymru campaigning, working with nature-friendly farmers, and a 3000+ strong petition we successfully advocated for agroecology to be central to the Act, putting farmers, food producers and citizens at the heart of solutions and recognising a resilient environment as a foundation of social and economic sustainability in Welsh law for the first time.
Despite being home to wonderful wildlife and spectacular scenery, Wales is one of the most nature-depleted places on the planet with one in six species in Wales is facing extinction. Almost 90% of Wales is farmed, so supporting farmers to adopt more climate and nature friendly practices is crucial to securing our future and our ability to produce food.
The Land of Our Future campaign will now call on Welsh Government to ensure the new system of agricultural payments – The Sustainable Farming Scheme – has enough funding, is distributed as soon as possible, and is implemented in the right way to reward farmers going above and beyond for nature, to encourage others to do so as well.
Bringing oysters and seagrass to Scottish rivers
Bringing oysters and seagrass to Scottish rivers
For the first time in 100 years, native oysters have been returned into the Firth of Forth as part of the groundbreaking Restoration Forth project. They’re the first of a total 30,000 oysters which will be reintroduced by the project to create a new oyster reef in the famous estuary. This will provide a vital habitat for many other species including fish, crabs, sea snails and sponges.
The first seagrass seeds were seeded in three locations along the Firth of Forth in March 2023 and they are already growing new seagrass. The Restoration Forth team also visited Orkney during the summer to harvest seagrass seeds and ready them for further planting in the same sites in March 2024.
Protecting and restoring Brazil’s largest savanna
Protecting and restoring Brazil’s largest savanna
The Cerrado is the world's most biologically rich savanna and home to millions of people. This important habitat is a key ally in tackling climate change. In the first half of 2023, deforestation in the Cerrado had increased by 21% compared to the same period in 2022. This loss is linked to deforestation and conversion for agricultural commodity production such as soy. The destruction is often associated with threats to livelihoods of Indigenous peoples and local communities, increasing violence and land conflicts. People, wildlife and landscapes in Brazil are suffering increased droughts, fires, extreme rain and floods, reduced agricultural activity, high food prices, and more.
WWF-Brazil and its partners are working with farmers and local communities to restore nature by promoting initiatives that both protect native vegetation and generate income. In 2023, WWF-Brazil worked with communities to restore 64 hectares (over 91 football fields) of the Cerrado.
WWF-Brazil's ambition is to support the restoration of 12 million hectares throughout Brazil by 2030, the equivalent of over 17 million football fields.
Working side by side with Indigenous Communities
Working side by side with Indigenous Communities
The Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta National Natural Park is home to four traditional ancestral peoples; the Arhuaco, Kogui, Wiwa, and Kankuamo, and their rich cultures. The park also hosts amazing biodiversity, including the iconic jaguar, brown spider monkeys and red crested tree rats. Land conversion for livestock farming, slash and burn agriculture, logging, illegal mining, land invasions and looting of sacred objects are among the pressures facing this precious land.
In March 2023, the Park was increased by 172,854 hectares (over 246,000 football fields), to 573,312 hectares. This expansion is a result of long-term consultation with communities, and from the need, as evidenced by Indigenous Peoples, to protect their ancestral territory.
The National Government of Colombia together with partners, including WWF, and local people have supported this expansion under a commitment to the long-term conservation of the country’s protected areas and priority landscapes (known as Herencia Colombia). Within this larger protected area, effective measures can be enforced to protect ancestral culture, biodiversity and ecosystem including; monitoring, controlling illegal activities, restoring degraded areas and implementing conservation strategies for protected species.
Supporting responsible palm oil growers
Supporting responsible palm oil growers
Historically, oil palm has been one of the biggest drivers of deforestation in Sabah. One fifth of Sabah is now covered by this single crop where wildlife-rich forests stood 40 years ago. However, oil palm is an extremely efficient crop and the oil itself is a major export commodity for Malaysia. In 2015, the Malaysian State of Sabah committed to achieving 100% RSPO (Roundtable on Sustainable Palm oil) certification by 2025. RSPO certification is widely accepted as the most rigorous sustainability standard for palm oil, but the certification process presents a daunting challenge for smallholders, who typically lack the necessary technical and financial resources.
With our support, 25 oil palm members of a growers’ cooperative in the Tawau region of Sabah became the first in Malaysia to achieve RSPO group certification. The LKSS cooperative has since grown to over 380 members comprising of 300 smallholders and 80 medium-sized growers with a cumulative land area of about 16,000 hectares. The success of the LKSS model has inspired two more growers’ cooperatives in Sabah to pursue group certification.
Offering hope for river dolphins
Offering hope for river dolphins
River dolphins are extraordinary predators in some of the world’s greatest river systems and are important indicators of the health of entire river basins. Since the 1980s, river dolphin populations have plummeted by 73% due to threats including unsustainable fishing practices, hydropower dams, pollution from agriculture, industry and mining, and habitat loss. The recent deaths of 276 river dolphins in two Brazilian Amazon’s drought-ravaged lakes shows that climate change is becoming an increasingly severe threat to their survival.
On International River Dolphin Day in 2023, WWF supported dolphin range governments in the signing of a landmark deal in Bogotá to save the world’s six surviving species of river dolphins from extinction. This declaration and eight-point action plan was signed by 11 Asian and South American range countries and stakeholders who pledged to tackle water quality issues, drive river dolphin research, eradicate unsustainable fishing practices, create a network of protected river habitats and increase river dolphin site management effectiveness.
This global declaration will support collaboration across countries, improve our knowledge of river dolphins and their ecosystems, and help us protect them.
Helping tigers roar back
Helping tigers roar back
The tiger is one of our world’s most iconic animals. At the start of the 1900s there were roughly 100,000 tigers roaming the wild in Asia. By 2010 there was as few as 3,200 – tigers were heading toward extinction.
In 2010, 13 tiger range countries came together to make a global commitment to double the number of tigers in the wild by 2022. During this 12-year period Bhutan, China, India, and Nepal all successfully increased their national tiger populations with Nepal nearly tripling their tiger population. This success was achieved through the conservation efforts of the Nepalese government, partners including WWF and local communities through projects such as forest restoration, and community-based anti-poaching units. In July 2023 the Global Tiger Forum released a new global tiger population estimate of 5,574. This estimate is just shy of the 6,000 target, which is a huge achievement. The increase proves it’s possible to turn things around for wildlife nearing extinction.
Our goal is by 2034, wild tiger populations and the number of places you find them is either stable or increasing in 22 landscapes across the tiger's existing and historic range.
Helping bring African rhinos back from the brink
Helping bring African rhinos back from the brink
Rhinos are important for biodiversity and contribute to the livelihoods of local people, through tourism and employment opportunities. Sadly, they face many threats including poaching, habitat loss and climate change. Between 1970 and 1992, around 96% of black rhinos were lost to wide-scale poaching.
On World Rhino Day 2023, the IUCN announced that despite poaching pressure, there were an estimated 23,290 (black and white) rhinos across the continent at the end of 2022, 5.2% more than in 2021. This includes an overall tally of 6,487 black rhinos in Africa, up 4.2% from 2021 – providing hope for the ongoing recovery of the species.
Kenya remains the stronghold of the critically endangered eastern black rhino, home to around three quarters of the population. WWF-Kenya works closely with the Kenya Wildlife Service, local partners, rangers and communities to conserve this ancient herbivore. This year, WWF supported the formal launch of the latest ‘Kenya Black Rhino Action Plan’ which is vital to guide rhino conservation efforts in the country.
Will you join us?
Whether you’ve made changes in your own life, donated, marched, signed petitions or used your voice to influence others – you’re part of a positive movement for our world that’s needed now more than ever before.
We’re in a race to restore the natural world and prevent catastrophic climate change before it’s too late. We need our leaders to turn their promises into action, and for the public, Indigenous Peoples and those most affected by the climate and nature crisis to have their voices heard. We need more people standing up and speaking out for our world, and more signs of nature recovering, bit by bit, here in the UK and around the world.
There are reasons for hope, and we’ve seen what can be achieved when we work together. But we can’t do it without you.
Join us and help bring our world back to life.