Conservation

It’s not every day we glimpse our future. But if we did, what would we change about our actions today? This year, we have the privilege to take a peek at what the Mediterranean Sea may look like in 15-20 years. But let me take a step back. It’s almost Christmas 2015 and we are […]

The large meeting room at the United Nations room was full to the point of bursting as governments, assisted by NGOs and other groups, gathered to start developing the first new treaty for oceans in over 20 years. As the European Union representative placed the Easter bunny on the table – it was Easter Monday, […]

Sometimes it takes a coincidence of the calendar to help us see the obvious connections in nature. 21 March is International Day of Forests and 22 March is World Water Day, which prompted WWF’s leading freshie (Lifeng Li, director of our global freshwater programme) and head tree hugger (Rod Taylor, director of our global forest […]

In November last year, I spent three very nervous weeks glued to a parcel courier website watching the tortuous journey my passport was making around the world. I was due to travel to Bali to attend the annual meeting of the Western & Central Pacific Fisheries Commission to advocate shark and ray conservation measures, but […]

…and their future is linked to ours In today’s Anthropocene era, which is shaped by humankind, we are living in a time of unprecedented risk but also unparalleled opportunity for the future of our planet and our society.  A time when the world’s wildlife has been halved in less than a generation; extinction rates are […]

Why should a bank in Europe care about the haze in Singapore or forest fires in Indonesia? First: credit risk. If a bank finances a plantation involved in open burning, the borrowing company can face fines and other penalties under Singapore’s Transboundary Haze Act. Similarly, banks can see a deterioration in their client’s credit profile […]

The theme this year’s World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos is the Fourth Industrial Revolution, which promises hyper-connectivity and technological breakthroughs. But will a faster, busier, more urban world simply sidestep the world’s wild places and natural systems? The answer: it must not. Nature, including forests, is more important to this revolution than the most […]

The 2016 World Economic Forum Annual Meeting follows an extraordinary year with the first-ever truly global response to some of the most challenging problems in our relationship with the planet. The “Anthropocene” made headlines earlier this month, as scientists presented further evidence that we have entered a new era in Earth’s history – one in […]

When you think about the changing climate and the impact this has on the marine environment, your first thought might be melting polar ice caps. Yet corals are among the most sensitive ecosystems and may be the most affected by climate change in the near future. In Hawaii, with water temperatures 3 to 4 degrees higher than […]

As His Holiness Pope Francis said in my home city of Quito earlier this month, “God gave the Earth to humanity not only to cultivate but also to nurture”. The message is clear: when the Earth thrives, we thrive with it. Both as President of one of the world’s largest environmental organizations, WWF International, and […]