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© Uncommon / WWF-UK
We’re facing monumental challenges
73%
drop in the average size of wildlife populations in just 50 years
1 million
animal and plant species threatened with extinction
27%
of greenhouse gas emissions caused by global food systems
90%
of tropical deforestation driven by agriculture
Our Approach
At WWF we’re uniquely well placed to bring our world back to life. We’ve been protecting nature’s wonders for more than 60 years. And now we’re leading the way not just to protect our natural world but to restore it.
We’re working through our unparalleled global network, and in collaboration with governments, businesses, NGOs, Indigenous peoples and local communities to achieve the following outcomes by 2027:
- Stop deforestation
- Deliver a sustainable future in the UK
- Bring nature back from the brink
- Inspire public action for nature
Find out how we propose to achieve these four outcomes in our strategy below.
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© Luis Barreto / WWF-UKMore Stop deforestation
Ending deforestation is critical for nature and the climate. We’re helping to slow deforestation and demonstrating solutions that can contribute to halting it by 2030.
We’re doing this by working alongside our colleagues in the Amazon, Borneo, Papua New Guinea and Western Congo to bring about laws that end deforestation. And we’re collaborating with local organisations in these countries to protect forests and manage them sustainably.
As food production is the single biggest cause of deforestation, we’re working with governments, businesses and financial institutions to make sustainable agriculture more rewarding than practices that damage the environment. And we’re supporting programmes in the Amazon region to showcase ways that agriculture can work without forest loss.
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© Greg Armfield / WWF-UKMore Deliver a sustainable future in the UK
We’re ensuring nature, climate and people are at the heart of decision-making.
We’re pushing the UK’s largest businesses to deliver robust plans that support nature and the climate, and pressing for regulation that forces them to act.
We’re also working with retailers, investors and food businesses to change our food system and holding them to account for their impact on nature and climate.
And we’re campaigning for a Living Planet Act – which will mean the UK government has to take joined-up action to stabilise the climate, protect and restore nature, and help farmers provide healthy, affordable food.
The living planet act -
© Daniel Nelson / WWFMore Bring nature back from the brink
We’re working to protect priority habitats and species, through conservation work that’s increasingly led by and benefiting Indigenous peoples and local communities.
We’re doing this by improving the health of ecosystems and connecting important habitats across landscapes and river basins, with a focus on the Himalayas, central India and east Africa.
We’re also protecting the polar oceans, where sea ice is rapidly disappearing, to give wildlife that depend on snow and ice the best chance of survival.
And we’re addressing drivers of nature loss to protect and increase populations of priority species, including elephants, jaguars, marine turtles, mountain gorillas, river dolphins and tigers.
Our work with Wildlife -
© Paul Rogers / WWF-UKMore Inspire public action for nature
We won’t succeed unless we have public support for change. We’re campaigning to inspire people to take action for nature and climate. And we’re mobilising that public support to compel governments and businesses to act.
We’re doing this by collaborating with corporate and cultural partners to reach new audiences and engage them in a mass movement for change. We’re also developing a supporting programme for schools and young people to inspire the next generation to act.
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Who we work with
Partnerships
Communities
Businesses
The Finance Sector
Economic policy makers
Our Ambassadors
Our work
Here is a snapshot of some of our projects funded by WWF-UK supporters.
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© Jonathan Lewis-Phillips / WWF-UKBeavers bringing hope
We’re working in partnership with Norfolk Rivers Trust to restore Norfolk’s rivers and wildlife. Lots of UK produce, like wheat and barley, is grown in Norfolk. But Norfolk is facing an ongoing water crisis that’s causing problems for farmers. Rivers and wetlands are disconnected and degraded. Climate change is altering the frequency and intensity of rainfall, leading to summer droughts and winter flooding. All this affects nature, food production and livelihoods. It’s a serious problem.
But farmers in Norfolk are involved in finding clever solutions. We’re using nature-based solutions to help both nature and people to thrive. Beavers, the ultimate ecosystem engineers, have been reintroduced and now work their restoration magic on the Norfolk ‘wholescape’.
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© Joseph Gray / WWF-UKRestoring UK wildflower meadows
The UK is one of the most nature depleted countries in the world and it urgently needs restoring. Since the 1930s, we’ve lost 97% of our lowland wildflower meadows. Not only are they home to thousands of UK native species, their grassland soil also helps in the fight against climate change by storing carbon. We’re working with our partner Air Wick to help bring these precious meadows back to life. From the partnership’s launch in 2021, we’re aiming to restore 20 million square feet of UK wildflower habitats (approx. 185ha).
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© Lewis Jefferies / WWF-UKRestoring seagrass beds
Over the last century, we’ve lost up to 92% of our seagrass meadows from our UK seas. And they continue to decline globally at a rate of 7% per year. With your support, we’re turning the tide. Together with partners through our Seagrass Ocean Rescue Programme, we are collecting and planting over 5 million seeds to restore seagrass meadows around Anglesey and the Llŷn Peninsula in Wales, the Solent in England and the Firth of Forth in Scotland. Seagrass is vital to our oceans and a key player in bringing our world back to life. It provides habitats for sealife, and despite accounting for less than 0.1% of the worlds oceans, they sequester around 10% of the carbon buried in ocean sediment every year. Per hectare, seagrasses can store twice as much carbon than terrestrial forests – helping to counteract climate change.
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© Martin Harvey / WWFLand for life
The destruction and loss of grasslands, forests and freshwater habitats has brought new problems in Kenya and Tanzania. With less land to share, there’s more contact and conflict between people and wild animals – which often doesn’t end well. When wildlife threatens your livelihood, conservation becomes less of a priority. Our Land for Life project is supporting community efforts to help people and wildlife thrive in Kenya and Tanzania.
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© François Xavier Pelletier / WWFProtecting river dolphins
River dolphins are faced with a barrage of threats. All six species are classified as either endangered or critically endangered on the IUCN Red List. Dams, fishing and pollution threaten their existence. That’s why at WWF, we’ve trialled an innovative solution called a ‘pinger’. It’s an acoustic device that’s attached to fishing nets and emits an electronic ‘ping’, helping to keep the river dolphins at a safe distance so they don’t get entangled in the nets.
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© Emmanuel Rondeau / WWF-USProtecting key tiger habitats
Tigers are the most threatened big cat species globally, reduced to around 5% of their historic range. Tigers play a key role in maintaining a healthy ecosystem and the vast areas of forest they need are a vital carbon store. WWF works with Governments, local communities and other conservation organisations to help crack down on the illegal wildlife trade, and protect key tiger habitats and corridors. WWF-Nepal played a key part in delivering the National Tiger and Prey Survey 2022, which covered 18,928 sq. km - over 12 per cent of Nepal. The survey confirmed Nepal had more than doubled its number of wild tigers to an estimate of 355 between 2009-2022, indicating the effectiveness of these collective conservation efforts.
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