Sustaining our relationship with nature

Growing pressures from mining, infrastructure development, oil and gas exploration, agroindustry and industrial logging threaten ecosystem health the world over. And when nature suffers, so too do the people closest to it - indigenous peoples’ ancestral and sacred lands are degraded, overfishing leaves coastal communities struggling to support their families and climate change, water shortages and soil erosion mean smallholders’ crops fail and with it, their primary source of food and livelihoods.

Communities closely reliant on the natural environment for their livelihoods and well-being feel the brunt of environmental damage most directly. Over the past 60 years we have found that conservation efforts benefit most when people benefit from conservation. Some of WWF's most important conservation successes have come from working directly with local and indigenous communities, finding practical ways for people and nature to thrive together. 

And, for many indigenous peoples and local communities around the world, that’s the way it’s always been. Land and sea, forest and river have provided for them for countless generations – and they’ve looked after these things in return, meaning they are very often the best placed to steward their environment.

We need more ambitious sustainable governance of our natural resources to ensure that we deliver healthy ecosystems into the hands of our children and generations beyond. This means working at different levels: from global policy agreements, public and private financial investment and market standards to national and local level decision-making for sustainable development.