Professional Documents
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Prince Bernhard of Lippe-Biesterfeld Julian Founder(s) Max Peter Guy Godfrey A. Rockefeller Type Charitable trust April Founded Morges, Switzerland) Location Key people Area served Focus Method Revenue Motto Website Gland, Switzerland President: Yolanda Kakabadse World wide Environmentalism Lobbying, research, consultancy 525 million (2010) For a Living Planet wwf.org panda.org 29, 1961 Huxley Nicholson Scott Mountfort
The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) is an international non-governmental organization working on issues regarding the conservation, research and restoration of the environment, formerly named the World Wildlife Fund, which remains its official name in Canada and the
United States. It is the world's largest independent conservation organization with over 5 million supporters worldwide, working in more than 100 countries, supporting around 1,300 conservation and environmental projects. WWF is a foundation, in 2010 deriving 57% of funding from individuals and bequests, 17% from government sources (such as the World Bank, DFID, USAID) and 11% from corporations. The group says its mission is "to halt and reverse the destruction of our environment". Currently, much of its work focuses on the conservation of three biomes that contain most of the world's biodiversity: forests, freshwater ecosystems, and oceans and coasts. Among other issues, it is also concerned with endangered species, pollution and climate change.
History
The idea for a fund on behalf of endangered animals was initially proposed by Victor Stolan to Julian Huxley in response to articles he published in the Observer. This proposal led Julian Huxley to put Victor Stolan in contact with Max Nicholson, a person that had had thirty years experience of linking progressive intellectuals with big business interests through the Political and Economic Planning think tank. Max Nicholson thought up the name of the organization. WWF was conceived on 29 April 1961, under the name of World Wildlife Fund, and its first office was opened on 11 September that same year in Morges, Switzerland. Godfrey A. Rockefeller also played an important role in its creation, assembling the first staff. Its establishment marked with the signing of the founding document called Morges Manifesto that lays out the formulation ideas of its establishment. A separate organization, The American Conservation Association, was merged into the WWF. ...They need above all money, to carry out missions and to meet conservation emergencies by buying land where wildlife treasures are threatened, money, for example, to pay guardians of wildlife refuges ...for educations among those who would care... For sending experts to danger spots and training... Making it all possible that their needs are met before it is too late. -Morges Manifesto WWF has set up offices and operations around the world. It originally worked by fundraising and providing grants to existing non-governmental organizations, based on the best-available scientific knowledge and with an initial focus on the protection of endangered species. As more resources became available, its operations expanded into other areas such as the preservation of biological diversity, sustainable use of natural resources, the reduction of pollution, and climate change. The organization also began to run its own conservation projects and campaigns, and by the 1980s started to take a more strategic approach to its conservation activities. In 1986, the organization changed its name to World Wide Fund for Nature, to better reflect the scope of its activities, retaining the WWF initials. However, it continues to operate under the original name in the United States and Canada. In the 1990s, WWF revised its mission to: Stop the degradation of the planets natural environment and to build a future in which humans live in harmony with nature, by: conserving the world's biological diversity ensuring that the use of renewable natural resources is sustainable
promoting the reduction of pollution and wasteful consumption. WWF scientists and many others identified 238 eco-regions that represent the world's most biologically outstanding terrestrial, freshwater and marine habitats, based on a worldwide biodiversity analysis which the organization says was the first of its kind. In the early 2000s, its work was focused on a subset of these eco-regions, in the areas of forest, freshwater and marine habitat conservation, endangered species conservation, climate change, and the elimination of the most toxic chemicals. We shan't save all we should like to, but we shall save a great deal more than if we had never tried. Sir Peter Scott In 1996, the organization obtained general consultative status from UNESCO.
Panda symbol
The Panda has become the symbol of WWF The well-known panda logo of WWF originated from a panda named Chi Chi that was transferred from the Beijing Zoo to the London Zoo in the same year of the establishment of WWF. As the only giant panda residing in the Western area at that time, along with its physical features and status as an endangered species, panda is seen to serve the need of a strong recognizable symbol of the organization. Moreover, the organization also needs an animal that would have an impact in black and white printing. The logo was then designed by Sir Peter Scott from the preliminary sketches made by a Scottish naturalist, Gerald Watterson.
communities. It also undertakes public campaigns to influence decision makers, and seeks to educate people on how to live in a more environmentally friendly manner.
Publications
WWF publishes the Living Planet Index in collaboration with the Zoological Society of London. Along with their ecological footprint calculations the index is used to produce a two yearly Living Planet Report to give an overview of the impact of human activity on the world. The organization also regularly publishes reports, fact sheets and other documents on issues related to its work, in order to raise awareness and provide information to policy and decision makers.
Criticism
WWF has been accused by a number of environmental groups and campaigners, such as Corporate Watch and PR Watch of being too close to businesses to campaign objectively. WWF claims partnering with companies such as Coca-Cola, Lafarge and IKEA will reduce their impact on the environment. WWF received 56 million (US$80 million) from corporations in 2010 (an 8% increase in support from corporations compared to 2009), accounting for 11% of total revenue for the year. Project Lock In 1988, Prince Bernhard, former president of the WWF, sold paintings for GBP700,000 to raise money for the World Wildlife Fund. The money was deposited in a Swiss WWF bank account. In 1989 Charles de Haes, director-general of the WWF, transferred GBP500,000 back to Bernhard, for what De Haes called a private project. In 1991, it was revealed that Prince Bernhard had used the money for an operation called Project Lock to hire KAS International, owned by SAS founder David Stirling, to use mercenariesmostly Britishto fight poachers in nature reserves. Mekong River dolphins report
In June 2009, Touch Seang Tana, chairman of Cambodia's Commission for Conservation and Development of the Mekong River Dolphins Eco-tourism Zone, charged that the WWF had misrepresented the danger of extinction of the Mekong Dolphin in order to boost fundraising. He called the WWF report unscientific and harmful to the Cambodian government. He also threatened the Cambodian branch of WWF with suspension unless they meet with him to discuss his charges. Touch Seang Tana later said he would not go forward with falseinformation charges, and would not make any attempt to prevent WWF from continuing its work in Cambodia. ARD documentary
The German public television ARD aired a documentary on the 22nd of June 2011, allegedly showing how the WWF cooperates with corporations such as Monsanto, providing sustainability certification in exchange for donations (a form of green-washing). WWF has rejected the allegations as factually wrong misrepresentations - it is not in "a partnership" with Monsanto and sustainability certification for commodities (not companies) requires independent assessment against social and environmental sustainability criteria drawn up by multi-stakeholder round tables. By encouraging high-impact eco-tourism, the program alleges that WWF contributes to the destruction of habitat and species it claims to protect. WWF-India is not active at the tiger reserve given as the example, but it is active elsewhere seeking to limit adverse tourism impacts and better sharing of tourism benefits to local communities. The program also alleges WWF certified a palm oil plantation operated by Wilmar International, a Singaporean company, on the Indonesian island of Borneo, even though the establishment of the plantation led to the destruction of over 14,000 hectares of rainforest. Only 80 hectares were ultimately conserved, the ARD documentary claims. According to the programme, two orangutans live on the conserved land, but have very slim chances of survival because no fruit trees remain and the habitat is too small to sustain them. To survive, they steal palm nuts from the neighboring plantation, thereby risking being shot by plantation workers. WWF notes that the plantation filmed is PT Rimba Harapan Sakti, which has not been certified as a sustainable producer by the Round Table on Sustainable Palm Oil. Aerial photographs show that around 4000 hectares, or about a third of the forest cover, has been conserved.
Presidents
Prince Bernhard of Lippe-Biesterfeld in 1942. Presidents 1962present Years Name 19621976 HRH Prince Bernhard of Lippe-Biesterfeld 19761981 HRH John Hugo Loudon 19811996 HRH Prince Philip of Great-Britain, Duke of Edinburgh 19961999 Syed Babar Ali 2000 Ruud Lubbers 20002001 Hon. Sara Morrison 20012010 Chief Emeka Anyaoku from 2010 Yolanda Kakabadse
1001 Club
In the early 1970s, Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands and Prince Philip of the United Kingdom, together with a few associates, set up the 1001 Nature Trust, its purpose being to cover the administrative and fund-raising aspects of the WWF. The club garnered 1001 members who each contributed $10,000 to the trust.
the company's name to "World Wrestling Entertainment." Its stock ticker also switched from WWF to WWE. Abandonment of the initialism did not end the two organizations' legal conflict. Later in 2002, the World Wide Fund for Nature petitioned the court for $360 million in damages, but was not successful. A subsequent request to overturn by the World Wide Fund for Nature was dismissed by the British Court of Appeal on June 28, 2007. In 2003, World Wrestling Entertainment won a limited decision which permitted them to continue marketing certain preexisting products with the abandoned WWF logo. However, WWE was mandated to issue newly branded merchandise such as apparel, action figures, video games, and DVDs with the "WWE" initials. Additionally, the court order required the company to remove both auditory and visual references to "WWF" in its library of video footage outside of the United Kingdom.
WWF in music
No One's Gonna Change Our World was a charity album released in 1969 for the benefit of the WWF. Peter Rose and Anne Conlon are music theatre writers, well known for their environmental musicals for children, who were commissioned by WWF-UK to write several environmental musicals as part of an education plan. Some were narrated by Sir David Attenborough, and broadcast on television in numerous countries. Environmentally Sound: A Select Anthology of Songs Inspired by the Earth is a benefit album released in 2006 for WWF-Philippines, featuring artists that included Up Dharma Down, Radioactive Sago Project, Cynthia Alexander, and Joey Ayala.
Amazon Arctic China for a Global Shift Climate & Energy Coastal East Africa Coral Triangle Forest-based Carbon Green Heart of Africa Heart of Borneo Living Himalaya Market Transformation Smart Energy Smart Fishing Tigers