Later history
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 spread to 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
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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, while retaining the WWF initials. However, it continued at that time to operate under the original name in the United States and Canada.
That year was the 25th anniversary of WWF's foundation, an event marked by a gathering in Assisi, Italy to which the organization's International President HRH Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, invited religious authorities representing Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam and Judaism. These leaders produced The Assisi Declarations, theological statements showing the spiritual relationship between their followers and nature that caused a growth in the involvment of those religions with conservation around the world.
In the 1990s, WWF revised its mission statement to:
Stop the degradation of the planet's 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; [and]
promoting the reduction of pollution and wasteful consumption.
WWF scientists and many others identified 238 ecoregions 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 (decade), its work was focused on a subset of these ecoregions, 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 that if we had never tried." – Sir Peter Scott
In 1996, the organization obtained general consultative status from unesco.
What do WWF does
In order to achieve this mission, WWF broadly focuses its efforts on two broad areas:
Biodiversity - to ensure that the earth web of life stays healthy and vibrant for generations to come.
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Footprint - reducing the negative impacts of human activity - our ecological footprint - and that the use of natural resources required for life are managed sustainably and equitably.
WWF around the world focuses all its efforts toward achieving six major goals - in the areas of Forests, Oceans, Wildlife, Food, Climate & Energy, and Water - and on three key drivers of environmental problems - Markets, Finance, and Governance.
But one organization alone can't affect the change needed. WWF works with many actors, locally and globally to achieve these ambitions, including local communities and multinational corporations, governments, finance institutions and development agencies, consumers and researchers.
By partnering with others, WWF can have greater influence, introduce new approaches and scale up solutions, catalyzing transformational change at a global scale.