On Saturday 23 March, millions of people around the world once again united for Earth Hour – the 18th since its launch in 2007 − in support and celebration of our planet to create the Biggest Hour For Earth. This year’s Earth Hour once again served as a much needed beacon of positivity, hope and inspiration in an increasingly divided world as it rallied old and new supporters alike to the cause. In addition to its symbolic lights-off moment, Earth Hour invited everyone, everywhere – particularly people who haven’t engaged before with the movement – to unite and find ways to ‘give an hour for Earth’, all the while doing the things they love. To date, supporters from more than 180 countries and territories have contributed over 1.4 million hours − from spending time reconnecting with nature to restoring our environment. Key public figures, including UN Secretary General António Guterres, joined WWF colleagues, partners and supporters in supporting Earth Hour, with a host of global landmarks also taking part in the iconic switch-off moment.
Photo: © Gayatri Pradhan / WWF-Nepal
One year on since the launch of the largest freshwater restoration initiative ever, there is growing support among governments around the world for its ambitious goals. The WWF-supported Freshwater Challenge aims to restore 300,000km of rivers and 350 million hectares of wetlands by 2030, and conserve freshwater ecosystems that are still intact. Initially championed by six countries in the Global South, 38 more countries from all continents joined the challenge at the COP28 climate summit last December, followed by another two countries since then, bringing the total to 46. WWF strongly supports this initiative as a vital contribution towards delivering the WWF-backed global UN commitment to put nature on the path to recovery by 2030.
Photo: © Shutterstock / Sebastian Castelier / WWF
Businesses have a crucial role to play in building a sustainable future for people and planet, so it’s great to see what’s happened since last year’s launch of recommendations to put nature at the heart of financial decision-making. So far, 320 organizations from over 46 countries have committed to act on the recommendations from the WWF-backed Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures, which call on businesses to report on their nature-related risks and opportunities. Better disclosure helps investors and regulators to understand the financial implications of environmental risks and opportunities for nature restoration that creates business value.
Photo: © Getty Images / Artur Debat / WWF-US
A new WWF report has highlighted the impact being made by Indigenous Peoples, local communities and small-scale fishers in conserving coastal environments. Since 2020, our Coastal Communities Initiative has supported their leadership of conservation efforts across 29 countries. More than 700 local and international partners have been involved to date, protecting 87 million hectares of critical coastal habitats in 128 sites by creating 84 marine protected areas or locally managed marine areas, and establishing 540 co-management units that ensure there is an active decision-making role for communities. This work has directly benefited over 300,000 people, with indirect benefits for many more.
Photo: © iAko R. / WWF-Madagascar
WWF has long worked alongside partners in the Terai Arc landscape of mountains, forests and grasslands along the border between India and Nepal − supporting local communities and wildlife including elephants, rhinos and tigers. So we are delighted that the landscape has been recognized as a UN World Restoration Flagship – a recognition that will help boost our conservation efforts in an area of almost 350,000 hectares. Landscape restoration efforts in the Terai Arc have focused on creating corridors between fragmented forest patches, through planting native species and protecting natural forest regeneration. Over the past two decades people and nature have benefitted, including a doubling of tiger numbers across the landscape and livelihood improvements for 500,000 households resulting from activities such as nature-based tourism.
Photo: © Shutterstock / PACO COMO / WWF-International
An annual US$1 million grant for at least the next 50 years will provide secure foundations for managing a vitally important landscape for people and nature in north-west Namibia. WWF-Namibia and partners will use this new grant from Legacy Landscapes Fund (LLF) to support the Skeleton Coast-Etosha conservation bridge, which passes through several protected areas, connects two national parks, and is home to 14 communal conservancies and a large variety of species including the iconic black rhino, giraffe and lion. We will work alongside local communities to help provide economic opportunities, boost climate resilience efforts, and safeguard the region’s wildlife and the corridors that enable them to move between different locations. The LLF grant includes a $US10 million donation from the Rob Walton Foundation. Pictured is Ngarukue Murorua, a member of the Namibia's Women for Conservation Association that advocates for women's active involvement in community-based sustainable development.
Photo: © CreativeLAB / WWF-US
The collaborative efforts of WWF-Colombia and other partners have led to the creation of a new 68,000-hectare protected area in Colombia’s Orinoquia region. The Serranía de Manacacías National Natural Park is a home to tropical savannas, gallery forests, wetlands, rivers and lagoons that support local communities and wildlife. Its location in the Manacacías river basin means that it also makes a vital contribution to water connectivity, provision and regulation at a regional level. WWF-Colombia supported discussions between local residents, government and civil society organizations that helped lead to the designation of the protected area.
Photo: © Luis Bernardo Cano
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A new green corridor, which will enable wildlife to move between two protected areas in Bhutan, has been declared by the country’s government. The BC-9 corridor links together Sakteng Wildlife Sanctuary and Bumdelling Wildlife Sanctuary, helping to safeguard the future of hundreds of bird, mammal and plant species and offering livelihood benefits for local communities. This is the last of nine corridors to be established between five national parks, four wildlife sanctuaries and one strict nature reserve in eastern Bhutan – a landscape that hosts critically important habitats. WWF is a founding partner of the Bhutan for Life project, which since 2018 has been helping to maintain protected areas and green corridors in this landscape and across the country.
For over 20 years, WWF’s Black Rhino Range Expansion Project (BRREP) has been working tirelessly with partners in South Africa to increase numbers of the critically endangered black rhino – moving animals from established populations into new areas where there is more space to breed and thrive. The most recent translocation of 20 rhinos from a reserve managed by the Eastern Cape Parks and Tourism Agency brings the total number moved to 250 – a landmark moment for the initiative. As a result of these and other efforts, black rhino numbers have more than doubled in the past two decades – from a low point of fewer than 2,500 to the latest estimate of 6,200.
Photo: © naturepl.com / Richard Du Toit / WWF
