You can help save biodiversity

Biodiversity decline and loss of ecosystem services is a major global threat to the future of our planet and our generations.

The good news is that there are lots of things you can do to help ease the pressure on this loss of biodiversity.

We are not in a hopeless situation.

In fact, even the simplest everyday activities can make a real difference...

Be good to our climate

/ ©: iStockPhoto / Jamie VanBuskirk
Small plant growing in drying mud.
© iStockPhoto / Jamie VanBuskirk
All of us are affected, in one way or another by Climate Change.
But where as we can wrap up warmer, cool our living rooms, or jump on a bus, train or plane to escape the worst of some climatic impacts, many many species are not so mobile, not so inventive, and cannot so easily adapt to the changes brought on by our massive emissions of greenhouse gases.

Species that have no-where to run are gradually being pushed towards extinction.

But you can help to switch off global warming in many different ways...

Don’t buy bad souvenirs

Chiru (Pantholops hodgsonii). / ©: Ronald PETOCZ / WWF-Canon
"Shahtoosh" is a cloth (usually made into a shawl) that comes from the wool of the Chiru, the endangered Tibetan antelope. Don't get fooled by the local salesman who may tell you that the wool is gathered by collecting tufts of Chiru hair that got caught on bushes when the animal is grazing - it's quite the opposite. The antelope must be killed to collect the wool. It takes 3 to 5 dead Tibetan antelopes to make one shahtoosh shawl. If the demand for the shawls continues, the antelope could be extinct within the next few years.
© Ronald PETOCZ / WWF-Canon
You're on your holidays, you're in the souvenir shop, and boy does "that" look nice. It’s so unusual, it would make a great talking point when you get home.
But is it made from the skin, fur, bone, shell, beak or hooves of an endangered species?

If it is, and if you buy it, you're just going to encourage whoever killed it, crafted it or made it, to do it all over again.

Plus, most likely you're going to break an international law when you go through customs, and that's always a situation to avoid.

By avoiding certain wildlife products and carefully watching what you buy (always ask!), you can prevent bringing many species closer to the edge of extinction.

At the same time you'll also be encouraging local suppliers to stock only legal and sustainable products.

So what should you look out for? You can check out our holiday guide here.

But the golden rule is this: if you doubt it, don't buy it.

Save our forests by buying "good" wood

/ ©: WWF Peru
A police raid on illegally harvested bigleaf mahogany in Pacaya Samiria National Reserve, Peru.
© WWF Peru
Every year about 13 million hectares of natural forest are lost - an area equivalent in size to Greece.
With some simple actions in your daily life you can contribute to global forest protection.

Buy wood and wood products that come from a sustainable legal source One of the main causes of this destruction is illegal logging, which is fed by the high demand for timber and timber products that end up in our shops and your homes. Some analysts estimate international trade of illegally logged products at around US$5 billion per year

By questioning where your garden furniture or wooden flooring comes from - you can in fact halt the chainsaws and support those suppliers who are doing it right! 

Look out for the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) label and if you don't see it, then ask, and make sure you are only buying good wood!

Reduce your paper consumption and use recycled paper Using 100% recycled paper saves 24 trees per tonne of paper

Check out some tips on how to be paper efficient!

Buy sustainable seafood

/ ©: WWF - Beatrice Lundberg/ Pressens bild
© WWF - Beatrice Lundberg/ Pressens bild
80% of the world's biodiversity lives in the sea and there is still much to be discovered. At least 100 million unnamed species live on the ocean floor alone. Yet beneath the ocean's surface there are constant scenes of absolute and utter destruction
It's a fact that the diversity of marine life is being systematically eroded by overfishing.

We are bulldozing, scooping, sieving and raking our oceans for all their worth...

And leaving nothing but a wasteland behind.

Nowadays 75% of the world’s fisheries are fully or over exploited.

Our insatiable demand for, and unscrupulous extraction of fish constitutes the single biggest threat to the overall health of the marine environment and its ability to support life on Earth.

But there are ways and means to keep our oceans alive.

At restaurant or at home, all you have to do is choose fish which are sustainable, avoiding endangered like Bluefin Tuna or Northsea cod and prefer seafood labelled with the blue MSC (Marine Stewardship Council) logo.

Take a stand against unsustainable fishing and check out these seafood guides...

And here are yet more things you can do as a consumer to help reduce your impacts on this one and only planet of ours...
/ ©: WWF
© WWF

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