World Wildlife Fund: WWF’s mission to save the Pandas.

Humans are not the only species on this planet, what about the animals? Animals can feel things, just like humans can? Is that not obvious?

Humans are largely responsible when animals become extinct, endangered or threatened. Humans destroy spacious habitat, the natural environment of a living thing, when they fill swamps and marshes, dam rivers and cut down trees to build homes, roads and other developments. Oil-spills, acid rain and water pollutions have been devastating for many species of fish and birds.  Many animals are over-hunted because their meat, fur and other parts are very valuable. When animals or plants arrive into a new habitat from a foreign place, they sometimes introduce diseases that the native species can’t fight. These ‘exotic’ species can also prey on the native species.

According to the history of World Wildlife Fund, ‘in 1961, a limited number of organizations around the world, such as the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) and The Conservation Foundation, were trying to meet conservation needs, but were desperately short of funds. The first call for broad support was the Morges Manifesto, signed in 1961 by 16 of the world’s leading conservationists, including biologist and African wildlife enthusiast Sir Julian Huxley, IUCN vice president Sir Peter Scott and director-general of the British Nature Conservancy E. M. Nicholson. The Morges Manifesto stated that while the expertise to protect the world environment existed, the financial support to achieve this protection did not. The decision was made to establish World Wildlife Fund as an international fundraising organization to work in collaboration with existing conservation groups and bring substantial financial support to the conservation movement on a worldwide scale.’ 

World Wildlife Fund, Inc. (WWF), the U.S appeal, became the second national organization to be formed in 1961. In its first year, the Board approves five projects totaling $33,500. Early projects include work with the bald eagle, the Hawaiian sea bird, the giant grebe of Guatemala, the Tule goose in Canada and the red wolf in the southern United States. WWF granted $38,000 to the Smithsonian Institution to study the tiger populations of the Chitwan Sanctuary in Nepal, allowing scientists to successfully use radio-tracking devices for the first time in 1973. WWF also purchased 37,000 acres adjacent to Kenya’s Lake Nakuru. Nearly 30 bird species depend on the lake, including a million flamingoes for which the lake is the principle feeding ground. WWF started to focus not only on species-related conservation projects, but also on protecting habitat by establishing national parks and nature reserves. With critical support from WWF and the United Nations Environment Program, the IUCN in 1980 publishes the ground-breaking World Conservation Strategy, stating that humanity exists as part of nature and has no future unless nature and natural resources are conserved. Through these debt-for-nature swaps, WWF will convert portions of national debts into funding for conservation. In a New York Times editorial in 1984, WWF vice president Dr. Thomas E. Lovejoy sets forth the concept of using Third World debt reduction to protect the environment. School children across the U.S respond to WWF’s ‘Pennies for Pandas’ campaign in 1984, donating more than $50,000 for panda conservation. Nancy Reagan personally delivered the gift to the Chinese government during a visit to Beijing.

Central china is a treasure house of rare and unusual animals that live in the bamboo forest of Sichuan Province, also known as the Sleeping Dragon. It’s a land of surprises with one and half meter of water dragons that make their home in the region’s many rivers. And there are flowers of surpassing beauty in the forests. Many of the creatures have lives that are shaped by bamboo; non-else than the giant panda. Bamboo is an immensely useful plant and the Chinese have used it for centuries. This giant grass has a thousand uses from medicines to building materials. Every Chinese village has its bamboo grove and for the local people, the hollow canes are an invaluable resource. Split canes can be woven enabling the village craftsman to make everything from sun hats to baskets.

But while larger kinds of bamboo are useful to people, small amount varieties are crucial for many of the Sleeping Dragon’s wild creatures. Probably the most dependent on bamboo is China’s most enigmatic animal: the giant panda. The bamboo’s fibrous nature has molded many of the panda’s features. Its teeth are flattened and its large cheek muscles provide the grinding power, giving the giant panda its round appealing face, but giant panda’s short gut, more suitable for digesting meat can only absorb a tiny bit proportion of the panda’s nutrients. 

So these animals live on a nutritional life aid, only just extracting efficient energy from the foliage to survive. The bamboo’s creative growth is prodigious; from small beginnings, it races towards the light and up to 12cm everyday. New shoots are juicy and high in protein and far too tasty for a giant panda to ignore. Spring is a good time for a giant panda; this is when the bamboo is at its most nutritious and they thrive solely on shoots. Their appetite is enormous, each one eats 12 kgs of shoots a day.  

A newborn is about the size of a stick of butter, but giant pandas can grow up to 150kgs as an adult.  The rarest member of the bear family, pandas have become the universal symbol for conservation. There are only 1,600 left in the wild. More than 100 years ago, giant panda bears were once hunted for their beautiful black and white fur coats. Many people would kill for these animals, and they did. Giant panda bears made it to the endangered species list. These wonderful animals are facing many obstacles that are getting in the way of their survival. 99% of their diet consists of bamboo, and when they eat all of it in one area, they move to another. But with the habitat occupied by humans, they have nowhere to go, and may die from starvation. China has a population of more than one billion people. As those people build more cities and farms, the pandas lose their homes.

China’s breeding program is finally going strong. With so many new irresistible cubs, Wu Long has become a tourist attraction, and more success has followed. In the year 2000, Wu Long broke even its records with eleven new cubs. Wu Long’s success gives us a certain optimism about the future of giant pandas, but with this comes another problem. What will we do with the surplus of captive cubs? Their natural habitat is vanishing. China’s human population puts enormous demands on the land: farming and logging or clearing the forests where pandas once lived. Pandas are pushed higher and higher up the mountains into the toughest terrain where there’s less to eat. To combat this problem, the Chinese government has set aside 32 reserves for the giant panda. However, the reserves are spread far apart, and fragmented. The panda population is actually split into small little islands of populations and there’s no exchange of individuals between these areas. Recent research indicates that we can put the pandas in habitat corridors that they put between the islands, to encourage them to come down out of one island, traverse through the corridor and up to another island and this will give genetic exchange and reduce the problems of inbreeding in the small populations.

But panda fieldwork is still tackling the basics and researcher Matt Durnin joined Chinese colleagues at 9,000 feet to study pandas in the wild. He wanted to find out just how many pandas are left and where they are. Twenty years ago, researchers relied on live animal traps, and the pandas were radio-collared and released. Today, new technology gives us a way to study pandas without actually ever seeing them. A high-tech method uses a simple barbed wire that plucks hair of the animal as they walk underneath. Through advanced DNA analysis, these collected hairs can tell us not only how many pandas are left in the area, but it can indicate their sex, age, and who’s related to whom. Matt is also finding the pandas need more than just bamboo. They have learned from previous work, if pandas simply relied on bamboo, then there should be more pandas up there. And the question remains: what may be limiting the size of that population.

It’s possible that there are too few den cites. It seems female pandas choose larger trees for their dens, yet unfortunately, logging has taken the biggest and the best of them. If there are in fact too few large trees, we may for example want to introduce artificial den cites to try to help the female pandas reproduce better and near their offspring. With an increase in captive population, there’s a growing hope for reintroduction. The information we know about the behaviors that we’ve learned from captivity in the information we’re graining from our work in the field are going to be crucial to the success of any future reintroduction. What we learn about giant pandas in the wild will make a big difference in how we care for them in captivity and more importantly we may one day know enough to be able to return them to the Bamboo Mountains where they belong. ‘Pandas play a crucial role in the bamboo forests where they roam by spreading seeds and facilitating growth of vegetation.            The panda’s habitat is at the geographic and economic heart of China, home to millions of people. By making this area more sustainable, we are also helping to increase the quality of life of local populations. Pandas bring huge economic benefits to local communities through ecotourism.

This peaceful creature with a distinctive black and white coat is adored by the world and considered a national treasure in China. The panda also has a special significance for World Wildlife Fun because it has been WWF’S logo since their founding on April 29, 1961.

According to WWF, the inspiration for their logo came from Chi-Chi: a giant panda that was living at the London Zoo in 1961, the same year WWF was created. WWF’s founders were aware of the need of a strong, recognizable symbol that would overcome all language barriers. They agreed that the big furry animal, with her appealing black-patched eyes would make an excellent choice.’ Today, WWF’s trademark is recognized as a universal symbol for the conservation movement.

WWF was the product of a deep concern held by a few eminent gentlemen who were worried by what they saw happening in our world at that time. Its first office was opened on September 11 that same year in Morges, Switzerland. Its creation is marked by the signing of the founding document called Morges Manifesto that lays out the formulation of its establishments. And since those days, WWF has grown to be one of the largest international non-governmental environmental organizations in the world.

The idea for a fund on the behalf of endangered animals was initially proposed by Victor Stolen to Sir Julian Huxley, and with the help of Max Nicholson, in an effort to protect endangered animals. Today, it is known globally as the World Wildlife Fund for Nature and its goals have expanded significantly.

Almost all their work involves partnerships and they team up with local non-profit agencies and other global NGOs to form relationships with village elders, local councils and regional government offices. In this day and age of globalization, they work in businesses that are willing to change.

The World Wildlife Fund

 The organization was registered as a charity and its missions to raise funds for wildlife began. The founders started by supplying grants to non-governmental organizations based on the best scientific wisdom accessible at the time. One notable early project involved assisting the Indian government in creating reserve for project Tiger. The World Wildlife Fund also help set up reserves in Africa, Asia, and Latin America as part of the tropical rainforest campaign. This developed into the WWF’s forced program, which work to conserve both tropical rainforest and temperate wooded areas. In the 1970s, the organization set up a number of sanctuaries for marine life in a large-scale campaign called the Seas Must Live. Soon, the focus of the WWF shifted from endangered species and habitat destruction, to tackle other conservation-related issues as well. The groups set up offices in different countries to promote its numerous far-reaching projects. The mission and strategy was further adjusted when the WWF merged with the Conservation Foundation, along with the preservation of nature. 

The group now also aims to maintain biological diversity, encourage the usage of sustainable resources, decrease pollution, and develop communication and collaboration with locals. Even more new goals were set in the 1990s. While conserving forests was still deemed important, the WWF added freshwater, ecosystems, oceans and coasts to its roster of causes. Today, the WWF continues working to reduce our ecological footprint, but also concentrate on the conservation of over thirty species and eco regions considered to have the most exceptional and biologically diverse habitats. In addition, the global program framework includes global initiatives, concerning the Amazon, the Arctic, smart energy, smart fishing, and more. Throughout its history, the WWF has attempted to bring about policy changes by both collaborating with and lobbying world governments. For instance, international moratoriums on whaling and the ivory trade are partly the result of the group’s efforts. Debt for nature swaps are another example where developing countries can both lower their foreign debt and yield funds for conservation efforts. The organizational was also instrumental in convincing government to endorse climate change conventions during the 1992 United Nations conference on Environment and development. The WWF now works with businesses, banks, scientists, and other groups on their campaign as well. 

‘Because water is essential to nature, communities, and business, The Coca Cola Company and WWF launched a transformational partnership in 2007 to help conserve the world’s freshwater resources. Expanding this focus and building on their progress, they have renewed their collaboration through 2020 to achieve even greater impact by helping address the natural resource challenges that impact fresh water. WWF and Coca-Cola will work together to conserve some of the world’s most important places spanning Asia, Africa and the Americas. Driving innovative, climate-smart solutions to freshwater challenges through basin-wide engagement and comprehensive policy support, they will focus their efforts on the catchments of the Mesoamerican Reef and the Yangtze River. In addition to their freshwater conservation efforts, WWF and The Coca-Cola Company joined forces to help protect the polar bear and its habitat. They launched the Arctic Home Campaign in North America during the 2011 holiday season to raise widespread awareness and funds for these efforts.

Since April 2009, Bank of America has offered a World Wildlife Fund BankAmerica Cash Rewards™ Visa® credit card and checking account to support our global conservation efforts. Bank of America contributes to WWF for each new qualifying credit card and checking account opened and activated. Bank of America will contribute $100 to WWF for each new qualifying credit card account. Support WWF even further with a World Wildlife Fund personal checking account, featuring checks and debit cards with the WWF logo printed on them. WWF will receive a $10 contribution from Bank of America for each new qualifying account.’ (WWF)

            As climate change becomes an increasingly significant issue, Earth Hour is an example of social entrepreneurship. The annual event organized by the WWF raises global awareness, where people are turning out their lives to signal their concern about the future of our life on this earth. Through online media, they challenged millions of people globally in a fun and easy way. To help people make better choices and be accountable for them, Earth Hour launched an ‘I will if You Will’ campaign that aims to drive participation by making ‘doing’ more rewarding and more exciting. ‘I will if You Will’ encourages people to go ‘Beyond The Hour.’("I Will If You Will – We're Supporting Earth Hour To Save Our Planet." The Yammer Blog. Customer Stories, 26 Mar. 2012. Web. 29 Oct. 2014)

By working with locals and non-governmental organizations to learn about how cultures effect the environment, the group also encourages countries to invent their own conservation strategies. Since the WWF is a charitable foundation, it receives financing from outside sources. Gifts and individual donations make up the majority of funding. Through governmental agencies, institutions and corporations contribute as well. However, this organization’s weaknesses led to criticism. Some have accused the WWF of bias campaigning due to its relationships with certain big businesses. Despite the group’s contributions, the underperformance of some of its programs, plus the alleged misrepresentation of certain risks, and order to attract more funding have also drawn criticism. Since its creation, the WWF’s approach to conservation and the environment has evolved from a preservationist plan to one that examines development issues. Now the World Wildlife Fund seeks solutions for global environmental security and hopes that humanity will one day live in harmony with nature.

WWF’s focus has evolved from localized efforts in favor of single species and individual habitats, to an ambitious strategy to preserve biodiversity and achieve sustainable development across the globe, including finance, business practices, laws, and consumption choices. WWF’s mission statement is to stop the degradation of the planet’s natural environment, and to build a future in which humans live in harmony with nature. To do so, they conserve the world’s biological diversity, they ensure that the use of renewable natural resources is sustainable, and they promote the reduction of pollution and wasteful consumption. Their guiding principle is to be global, independent multi-cultural and non-party political, and to run its operations in a cost effective manner and apply donors’ funds according to the highest standards of accountability.

Our Planet Needs Us

‘Humanity: the most intelligent species on the planet, capable of anything. But is governed by its aggression and youth. A species fast in developing, but slow in maturing.

Once a species that cared about its home, its provider, let its ego dominate its decisions. A period of ignorance and neglect has had profound effects across the world. Effects which can be reversed, if nature is given the time to repair the damage.

Remember… We only have one home.’

- David Bayliss

Can you blame Mother Earth for being mad? We are a speck in this universe; on one little planet we call Earth, which we have managed to corrupt. It’s been said that we don’t inherit the earth from our ancestors; we borrow it from our children.

When technological advances in the 1930s provided the means to synthesize chemicals from petroleum and natural gas, the petrochemical industry ramped up production of diverse species of novel compounds without testing their safety. Rachel Carson decided to use her skills in both writing and biology to warn the public about the long-term disastrous effects of misusing pesticides, in her publication of Silent Spring.

Rachel Carson held a job at the US Bureau of fisheries and she was always submitting conservationists’ writings to newspapers and magazines. And in these articles, she stressed the importance of living with the environment like trying to satisfy both the fisherman and the fish. While she was associated with the Fish and Wildlife Service, Carson became aware of the misuse of pesticides. She was disturbed by the large amount of use of synthetic chemical pesticides after World War II, and the chemical that concerned her the most was DDT. She was also aware of the controversy on the subject; she understood that the farmers saw the need to use pesticides to stimulate crop growth. As the petrochemical era grew and grew, warning signs emerged that some of these chemicals could pose hazards. Gradually, a body of data started accumulating that the synthetic chemicals which have permeated our workplace, our consumer products, our air, our water, produce cancer and also birth defects, and some other toxic effects. After years of conducted research, Carson published her famous book Silent Spring, where she urged the practices of agricultural scientists and the government to revolutionize the way people looked at the natural world. 

Carson made it clear that human beings just want one part of the environment and that everything we do, effects the environment greatly. Some things we do alter the environment so greatly that it is irreversible. She said: ‘the human race is challenged more than ever before to demonstrate a mastery not over nature but of ourselves.’ In Silent Spring, Carson describes the devastating affects that pesticides have on the environment. She stresses that once they are sprayed, the pesticides never go away, and pesticides that were with the intended purpose of killing unwanted plants will kill other plants and animals around it. The poison stored in the soil can effect later generations and organisms that attempt to live on that land. Also, the contaminants can travel to other parts of the world through groundwater and rain. Silent Spring revolutionized the way people viewed the natural world. People were more aware of the fact that their actions affect other organisms around them. Many people consider the humans to be the rulers of the Earth: we are constantly changing their environment to fit our needs. Carson showed that when you narrow it down to size, we are just one part of an ecosystem and when we damage one part of the ecosystem, we are really hurting ourselves in the process.

It wasn’t long after the publications that people started to take action in their own environments. After president Kennedy read the book and saw the response of the public, he called for a testing of the chemicals that were mentioned in the book. As a direct result of these studies DDT was banned and an environmental legislation was added. ‘If we do what is right, now in 1963, we must set aside substantial areas of our country, for the people who are going to live in it by the year 2000. For 180 million Americans now live, by the year 2000, there will be 350 million of them (JFK).’ It brought environmental issues to the attention of not just industries and government; it brought them to the public and put our democracy itself on the side of saving the Earth. Silent Spring is considered to be the jumpstart of the modern environmental movement. She made the public aware that we’re just one of a delicate ecosystem, that they we’re slowly destroying. Rachel Carson revolutionized agriculture and in turn she affected the safety of thousands and thousands of people.

The awareness has grown to reach millions of people. The world is using the equivalent of one and a half planets to support life on Earth. Earth Hour was born out of hope that this could change. WWF-Australia inspired its residents to show their support for climate change action. ‘In 2007 in Sydney, 2.2 million homes and businesses turned their lights off for one hour to make their stand against climate change in Australia. 

In 2008, Earth Hour became a global sustainability movement with more than 50 million people across 35 countries participating. Global landmarks such as the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, Rome’s Colosseum and the Coca Cola billboard in Times Square, all stood in darkness, as symbols of hope for a cause that grows more urgent by the hour. In March 2009, hundreds of millions of people took part in the third Earth Hour. Over 4000 cities in 88 countries switched-off to pledge their support for the planet, making Earth Hour 2009 the world’s largest global climate change initiative. 2011 marked the first time that Earth Hour asked people to go beyond the hour. To think about what else we can do to make a difference, to take off some of the pressure we all place on our only planet’ ("History of Earth Hour." WWF.PANDA.ORG. WWF, 1 Jan. 2011. Web.). In its seventh year, Earth Hour broke all records of mass participation by mobilizing hundreds of millions of people to become everyday superheroes for the planet, Earth Hour was observed in over 162 countries and territories and over 7000 cities and towns. More than just a lights-off event, Earth Hour achieved remarkable environmental outcomes all across the world: Russia gathered 127,000 signatures to protect the forests, Argentina protected 3.4 million HA of sea, and Uganda planted 500,000 trees.  Earth Hour has grown from a one-city initiative in 2007 to the world’s largest campaign for the planet, using hundreds of million of people across 7000 cities and towns in 152 countries and territories. 

Earth Hour is worldwide grassroots movement uniting people to protect the planet. Organized by Word Wildlife Fund, Earth Hour has become far more than just an annual event; it is a movement that culminates in an hour of inspiration across the world, held towards the end of March each year. Earth Hour is an initiative of WWF. In 2007, WWF initiated Earth hour a way of engaging a broad section in the environmental issues challenging citizens across the world. WWF embraced the idea of an open-sourced campaign that would allow communities to become part of a global movement to protect our planet. Earth Hour is a movement that has created massive impact around the world and it is letting everyone know that it’s time to conserve, protect, and celebrate the possibilities of a better future. France was unrecognizable with its iconic Eiffel Tower in the dark, but it is time to change and it is time to act. President Lyndon Johnson said: ‘Either we stop the poison in our air, or we become a nation in gas masks roping our way trough these dying cities and wilderness ghost towns that the people have evacuated.

                However, at one time, everywhere was surrounded with beauty and now there are over seven billion people living on Earth. As the population grows, we are taking more and more land to live and using more of the world’s natural resources. Many human activities also produce pollution, which is damaging the Earth’s environment. 70% of our Earth is the Ocean, and we have done so much that we can’t take back. We pollute streams and rivers with our litter and we cut down beautiful forests for our own selfish purposes. What about our air supply? They can’t last forever. Many people around the world don’t even get to drink clean water, and in most cases, die from it.

                Going green is easier than you think. There are little things you can do every day to help reduce greenhouse gases and make a less harmful impact on the environment. Taking care of the Earth is not just a responsibility -- it's a privilege. 

Together we can find the energy to turn the inspiration of one hour into the actions of every hour.