Environmental Conservation Organization.

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WWF organization grew from being a small group of committed wildlife enthusiasts into a global network, supported by people from all walks of life, who, like WWF, care about the welfare of our planet. In almost 5 decades, WWF (formerly known as the World Wildlife Fund) has become one of the world's largest and most respected independent conservation organizations. With almost 5 million supporters distributed throughout 5 continents, WWF has offices in over 90 countries and can safely claim to have played a major role in the evolution of the international conservation movement.

WWF in the 60's. Gerald Watterson is well-known and a very important figure in WWF for his lifetime's work towards the conservation of nature and for his key role in the creation the original panda logo for WWF.

One of the most important figures in WWF's early history was the renowned British biologist, Sir Julian Huxley. The first Director General of UNESCO, Huxley had also helped found a scientific research-based conservation institution, now known as IUCN-The World Conservation Union.

In 1960, Huxley went to East Africa to advise UNESCO on wildlife conservation in the area. He was appalled at what he saw. On his return to London, he wrote three articles for The Observer newspaper in which he warned the British public that habitat was being destroyed and animals hunted at such a rate that much of the region's wildlife could disappear within the next 20 years.

The articles hit home, alerting readers to the fact that nature conservation was a serious issue. Huxley received a number of letters from concerned members of the public. Among these was a letter from businessman Victor Stolan, who pointed out the urgent need for an international organization to raise funds for conservation.

But Stolan stressed that he was not in a position to launch such an organization himself. Huxley therefore contacted ornithologist Max Nicholson, Director General of Britain's Nature Conservancy, who took up the challenge with enthusiasm. By spring 1961, Nicholson had gathered together a group of scientists and advertising and public relations experts, all committed to establishing an organization of the kind Stolan had suggested. Prominent among those experts was another ornithologist Peter Scott, a vice-president of IUCN, who was later to become the new organization's first chairman.

The group decided to base its operations in neutral Switzerland, where IUCN had already transferred its headquarters to a villa in the small town of Morges on the northern shores of Lake Geneva. The new organization, which planned to work closely with IUCN, was to share this villa. IUCN welcomed the fledgling organization: " Together, " both parties agreed, " we will harness public opinion and educate the world about the necessity for conservation."

Meanwhile, Chi-Chi the panda had arrived at London Zoo. Aware of the need for a strong, recognizable symbol that would overcome all language barriers, the group agreed that the big, furry animal with her appealing, black-patched eyes, would make an excellent logo. The black and white panda has since come to stand as a symbol for the conservation movement as a whole.

WWF was officially formed and registered as a charity on 11 September 1961. The international fund-raising mission was about to begin.

The founders decided that the most efficient approach would be to set up offices in different countries. They therefore launched National Appeals, which would send up to two-thirds of the funds raised to the international secretariat in Morges (now known as WWF International), and keep the remainder to spend on conservation projects of their own choice.

WWF planned to work, wherever possible, with existing non-governmental organizations, and base its grants on the best scientific knowledge available a policy which has been adhered to ever since. Its first grants went to IUCN, the International Council for Bird Preservation (ICBP, now Birdlife International), the International Waterfowl Research Bureau, and the International Youth Federation for the Study and Conservation of Nature.

The first National Appeal, with HRH The Duke of Edinburgh as President, was launched in the United Kingdom on 23 November 1961. On 1 December, it was followed by the United States, and a few days later, Switzerland. Since then, WWF has grown considerably. National Appeals are now known as National Organizations. Twenty-four of these are affiliated to WWF International, while five organizations which operate under a different name are associated with WWF. Each National Organization is a separate legal entity, responsible to its own Board and accountable to its donors. WWF International itself is accountable to the National Organizations, donors, and the Swiss authorities. Most of the members of WWF International's Board and committees are drawn from the Boards and Chief Executive Officers of the National Organizations. WWF also has programme offices throughout the world and representatives in many countries.

In its first three years, WWF raised and donated almost US$1.9 million to conservation projects. Much of this money was given by individuals, moved by newspaper articles such as a seven-page feature on the organization in the Daily Mirror newspaper which provoked the British public to send in £ 60, 000 within a week of its publication.

Some of the early grants, such as those to IUCN and ICBP, were large. Another substantial donation went to the Charles Darwin Foundation for the Galá pagos Islands. WWF still funds projects in the Galá pagos, and has helped the Ecuadorean government to establish the Galá pagos National Park, control introduced species which threaten the islands' rare indigenous plants and animals, and set up research training and education programmes. The Galá pagos Islands could now stand as an example of the way low-impact tourism can be integrated with research, development, and conservation initiatives.

In 1969, WWF joined forces with the Spanish government to purchase a section of the Guadalquivir Delta marshes and establish the Coto Doñ ana National Park. This important wetland area, one of the last refuges of the Spanish imperial eagle and the Iberian lynx, is constantly threatened by schemes to increase local agricultural output and tourism. WWF still supports Coto Doñ ana, and is fighting proposals to drain the marshes and syphon off water to irrigate agricultural land along the coast and to expand tourist facilities.

WWF in the 70's. Establishing the Trust Fund. From the very beginning, WWF has been aware that people donate money to the organization because they want to give direct support to conservation.

In 1970, HRH Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands, then President of WWF International, launched an important initiative that was to provide WWF with the solid, independent financial base it needed. The organization set up a US$10 million fund, known as The 1001: A Nature Trust, to which 1001 individuals each contributed US$10, 000. Since establishing The 1001, WWF International has been able to use interest from the trust fund to help meet its basic administration costs.

So when WWF helped the Indian government launch Project Tiger in 1973, the public was assured that its donations would go towards saving India's charismatic, but severely endangered, tigers. Mrs Indira Gandhi set up a task force to carry out a comprehensive six-year tiger conservation plan and the government put aside land for nine tiger reserves. India later added six more reserves. Nepal followed suit with three, and Bangladesh with one.

Two years later, WWF embarked on its first worldwide Tropical Rainforest Campaign, raising money and arranging for several dozen representative tropical rainforest areas in Central and West Africa, Southeast Asia, and Latin America, to be managed as national parks or reserves. Forest conservation has been an important WWF focus ever since. The organization's Forest Programme now supports 350 projects all over the world, in an effort to conserve not only tropical rainforests but also the forests of the temperate zones.

The 1970s were an exciting and active time. The launch of an ambitious marine campaign, " The Seas Must Live", in 1976, enabled WWF to set up marine sanctuaries for whales, dolphins, and seals, and to protect marine turtle nesting sites. The decade drew to a close with a campaign to " Save the Rhino", which rapidly raised over US$1 million to combat rhino poaching.

Meanwhile, concerned that trade in animals, plants, and commodities such as ivory and rhino horn was driving many species towards extinction, IUCN had created a body to monitor trade in wildlife and wildlife products. The new organization, known as TRAFFIC (Trade Records Analysis of Fauna and Flora in Commerce) opened its first office in the United Kingdom in 1976. With WWF's help, TRAFFIC has now grown into a network of 17 offices on five continents, and has played a major role in persuading governments all over the world to increase species protection and strengthen wildlife trade controls.

All this activity meant that WWF had long outgrown its villa in Morges, and desperately needed new premises. In 1979, the accommodation problem was solved by an anonymous donation that enabled the organization to move to a modern office block in Gland, along the lake, halfway between Geneva and Lausanne.

WWF: The Eighties. By the end of the 1970s, WWF had grown from a small organization that concentrated on problems such as endangered species and habitat destruction, into an international institution involved in all manner of conservation issues. Perhaps the most important of these was the need to integrate development with conservation.

WWF marked the dawn of the 1980s by collaborating with IUCN and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) on the publication of a joint World Conservation Strategy. Endorsed by the United Nations Secretary General, the Strategy was launched simultaneously in 34 world capitals. It recommended a holistic approach to conservation and highlighted the importance of using natural resources sustainably. Since the launch, 50 countries have formulated and initiated their own national conservation strategies, based on its recommendations. A simplified version, How to Save the World, was subsequently published in several languages.

Meanwhile, WWF continued to build up its popular support base. In 1981, when HRH The Duke of Edinburgh took over from John Loudon as President of WWF International, the organization had one million regular supporters worldwide. Fundraising efforts received a boost in 1983, with the launch of the Conservation Stamp Collection. Under this scheme, WWF in collaboration with Groth AG has worked with the postal authorities in more than 200 countries, helping them select threatened species to feature on official postage stamps. The programme has so far raised over US$13 million.

By 1986, WWF had come to realize that its name no longer reflected the scope of its activities. The WWF Network therefore decided to publicize their expanded mandate by changing their name from World Wildlife Fund to the World Wide Fund For Nature. The United States and Canada, however, retained the old name.

As part of its 25th anniversary celebrations, WWF invited leaders from the world's five main religions to a two-day retreat in the historic Italian town of Assisi. After the retreat, the leaders issued declarations that conservation was a fundamental element in their respective faiths. This led to the formation of an international network, that now includes eight religions, through which WWF and religious groups work together to achieve common aims.

WWF's status as a non-governmental organization with whom governments are happy to work means that it is extremely well positioned to press for changes in government policy. In 1985, the organization helped bring about an international moratorium on whaling. Since then, a whale sanctuary has been established in the important Antarctic feeding grounds. The fact that the organization has good relationships with governments has also enabled it to negotiate debt-for-nature swaps, under which a portion of a nation's debt is converted into funds for conservation. Debt-for-nature swaps have been made with a number of countries, including Ecuador, Madagascar, the Philippines, and Zambia.

WWF in the 90's. The 1990s began with the launch of a revised mission and strategy. The expanded mission reiterates WWF's commitment to nature conservation, and classifies the organization's work into three interdependent categories: the preservation of biological diversity, promoting the concept of sustainable use of resources, and reducing wasteful consumption and pollution. The 1990 strategy aims to decentralize WWF's decision-making, and to increase cooperation with local people.

The following year, building on lessons learned in the decade since the launch of the World Conservation Strategy, WWF, IUCN, and UNEP joined forces again to publish Caring for the Earth- A Strategy for Sustainable Living. Launched in over 60 countries around the world, Caring for the Earth lists 132 actions people at all social and political levels can take to safeguard or improve their environment, while simultaneously increasing the quality of their life.

One of the most important ways in which people can help ensure the future health of the planet is to cut down their consumption of fossil fuels. This will reduce the damage that air pollution and acid rain inflict on people, animals, and plants, and slow down the rate at which the world's weather patterns are changing. WWF works to make people and governments aware of the implications of climate change and to persuade them to reduce polluting activities to a minimum.

The organization works with governments in two ways as collaborator and lobbyist. For example, it cooperates with the government of Madagascar on an environmental syllabus for use in the island's primary schools, and with the Chinese Ministry of Forestry on a giant panda management plan.

In 1990, WWF helped bring about an international moratorium on the ivory trade. And in 1992, it played a part in pressurizing governments to sign conventions on biodiversity and climate change at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro. It is now working to ensure that those conventions are implemented in an effective manner.

WWF also maintains links with other non-governmental organizations both national and international. It makes a particular point of responding to local conservation needs, and working with local people. More and more projects involve rural communities in making decisions as to how their environment should be both used and conserved, while providing economic incentives.

At the end of 1993, Claude Martin took over as Director General of WWF International, replacing Charles de Haes who had served in this position for the previous 18 years. At the same time, the organization completed a two-year network-wide evaluation of its conservation work. On the strength of this study, it resolved to focus its activities on three key areas: forests, freshwater ecosystems, and oceans and coasts. WWF believes that in pursuing the new goals via carefully planned strategies, it will be able to make the best use of its resources.

Contributions from individuals remain the organization's most important source of funds, making up 53 per cent of its annual income.

WWF in the new millennium. To keep up with the evolving face of conservation and the environmental movement, WWF has not only grown in size and stature but it has also matured in its understanding of what has gone wrong and what is required to put things right.

WWF's focus has evolved from its localized efforts in favour of single species that characterized WWF in the 1960s, to new horizons encompassing national, regional and global scales of complexity. Focus of work today is as following: " Our objectives have never been clearer - slow climate change, reduce toxics in the environment, protect our oceans and fresh waters, stop deforestation, and save species, " says Dr Claude Martin, former Director General of WWF International. " Our great achievement over the past 40 years is spreading the message - through us people know that nature counts."

The future. In the coming years WWF will continue to assume its role as a credible and influential global leader - influencing at the highest possible levels and at the same time staying firmly in contact with the realities on the ground. WWF is about " doing conservation", not simply talking about it!

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