-World Conservation Union
From 65438 to 0960, Huxley went to East Africa as a consultant for UNESCO's wildlife protection activities in this area. After returning to London, Huxley published three articles in the Observer to warn the British public. In his article, he pointed out that if humans destroy animal habitats and kill wild animals at such a speed, the wild species in this area will be extinct within 20 years. Huxley's article immediately caused a sensation in Britain, and the public began to realize that nature protection is a serious problem. Huxley received many letters from the public, including a businessman named Victor Stoland. In his letter, he pointed out that an international organization could be set up to raise funds for nature conservation, but Stoland pointed out that his status was not suitable for him to set up such an organization. Later, Huxley got in touch with Max Nicholson, director-general of British Conservation Organization and ornithologist.
196 1 year, Nicholson convened a group of scientists and public relations experts, and they all agreed to set up the foundation suggested by Stoland. As the newly established foundation plans to cooperate with IUCN, which has moved its headquarters to Morges, a small town on the northern shore of Lake Geneva, Switzerland, they decided to locate the foundation headquarters here. IUCN is very welcome. In the cooperation agreement between the two parties, it is written as follows: "We will work together to arouse public awareness and let the world realize the importance of protecting nature." WWF was officially registered as a charity on September 196 1+0 1. The first country of WWF is planned to be established in Britain on June 23rd,1961165438, with the Duke of Edinburgh as the chairman. 65438+February 1, the United States also established the national institution of the World Wide Fund for Nature, followed by Switzerland.
1962, WWF provided 13 1 USD to Mr. Peizi in Upper Xilong Plateau, Assam, India, to ensure that he could go to Qazi swamp area to investigate the existing number of Indian wild donkeys. Peggy found 870. By 1975, the number of wild donkeys had dropped to 400, which was on the verge of extinction. So WWF established a wild donkey reserve in this area. By the mid-1980s, the number of wild donkeys had exceeded 2,000. From 65438 to 0969, WWF and the Spanish government jointly purchased the marshland of Gua Delquie Ville River Delta and established Cototana National Park. Since its establishment, WWF has realized that people donate money to the organization because they want to make some direct contributions to nature protection. People don't want their donations to be used for institutional management.
1970, Prince bernhardt of the Netherlands (who later served as the chairman of WWF's international headquarters) established a solid and independent economic foundation for the organization. The World Wide Fund for Nature has set up a fund of US$ 6.5438+million, named "100 1: Natural Credit Fund". To this end, 100 1 person donated $6.5438+0 million each. After that, the international headquarters of WWF can use the interest of this fund as the expenditure of institutional management. Therefore, when WWF helped the Indian government to carry out the tiger rescue plan in 1973, the public was assured that their donations would be directly used to save this sacred but endangered tiger. For this reason, the former Prime Minister of India, Mrs. Gandhi, set up a special organization to implement a six-year tiger protection plan and set up nine tiger reserves. Subsequently, India added six protected areas, Nepal added three and Bangladesh added 1.
Two years later, WWF began to protect the tropical rain forest. The organization raises funds to help dozens of tropical rainforests in Central Africa, West Africa, Southeast Asia and Latin America establish national parks or nature reserves. 1976, another "ocean must be alive" plan was launched. WWF has established marine reserves for marine animals such as whales, dolphins and seals, and protected the breeding grounds of turtles. In the late 1970s, WWF launched the "Save Rhinoceros" campaign, and they quickly raised more than10 million dollars to deal with rhinoceros poaching. At the same time, IUCN realized that animals and plants, such as ivory and rhinoceros horn, were in danger of extinction, so it set up an organization to control the wildlife trade. The organization named TRAFFIC (Wildlife Trade Investigation Committee) was first established in 1976 in Britain. 1979 A donor who asked not to be named provided WWF with a modern office building, which is located in the middle of Geneva and Rosan, on the Grand Lake in Geneva. By the end of 1970s, WWF had developed from an ecological organization concerned with endangered animals and protecting their habitats to a worldwide organization concerned with all nature conservation issues. Some organizers have realized that the most important thing is to link development with protection.
In the early 1980s, WWF, IUCN and UNEP jointly issued the World Nature Conservation Strategy. The strategy was signed by the Secretary-General of the United Nations and launched simultaneously in the capitals of 34 countries around the world. This means that nature protection has taken a new step and shows the importance of sustainable utilization of natural resources. Since the beginning of this strategy, more than 50 countries have formulated their own national strategies. The popular version of How to Save Our World is also published in many languages. 198 1 year, when the Duke of Edinburgh succeeded john law Tong as the chairman of WWF, the organization had one million long-term supporters all over the world. From 65438 to 0983, with the development of nature protection stamps collection activities, the donation amount increased rapidly.
From 65438 to 0985, the organization urged the international community to delay whaling and strive to establish a whale marine reserve in Antarctica. From 65438 to 0986, WWF realized that its original name "World Wildlife Fund" could no longer reflect its scope of activities. Therefore, the organization changed its name to World Wide Fund for Nature to show the expansion of its activities. Only the branches in the United States and Canada still use the old name. Since 1990s, WWF has reformulated its strategic plan. The expanded strategy reaffirms the nature conservation theme of WWF, and divides the organization's work into three independent parts: biodiversity protection, promoting the concept of natural resources and sustainable development and utilization, and reducing wasteful consumption and pollution. The strategy of 1990s also weakened the dominant position of WWF to increase cooperation with local residents.
From 65438 to 0990, WWF successfully launched international activities to restrict ivory trade. 1992, which, together with other organizations, urged governments to sign conventions on biodiversity and climate at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. WWF also keeps in touch with other non-governmental environmental groups. It pays special attention to cooperation with local residents to solve the urgent nature protection problems in various places.
In the Kafue Plain of Zambia, WWF helped the local government to successfully solve the relationship between development and protection. Local residents have been trained to protect wild swamp antelopes. They are concerned about and report the decline of antelope population. Due to the effective protection measures taken by local residents, the number of antelopes is increasing now, and some weak people can be eliminated through hunting. The fees charged to hunting enthusiasts are re-used for community development and wildlife protection.