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UPDATE JUNE 2013 TIGER TEAM Surveying some of the last tiger strongholds POSITIVE ENERGY How you made this year’s Earth Hour the best ever MORE FISH Raising a wave of support for sustainable seas GREEN FUTURE Inspiring WWF’s young environmental champions LIVING WITH GIANTS Helping people live in harmony with African elephants

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Page 1: LIVING WITH GIANTS - WWFassets.wwf.org.uk/downloads/impact_jun2013.pdfLIVING WITH GIANTS Helping people live in harmony with African elephants REPRO_WWF_Impact_06_v6.indd 1 01/05/2013

100%RECYCLED UPDATE

JUNE

2013

TIGER TEAMSurveying some of the last tiger strongholds

POSITIVE ENERGYHow you made this year’s Earth Hour the best ever

MORE FISHRaising a wave of support for sustainable seas

GREEN FUTUREInspiring WWF’s young environmental champions

LIVING WITH GIANTSHelping people live in harmony

with African elephants

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A THRIVING FUTUREThere’s no doubt about it – our world is changing fast. The implications of growing economies in the South and East of the globe are enormous. And at WWF-UK we’re reacting and doing things differently in response - in order to safeguard nature’s most important places and species for future generations.

So we’re focusing our efforts on rivers, oceans and forests – to protect the wildlife and people who depend on these habitats. You’ll discover how you’re raising a swell of support to replenish fish numbers in our seas (page 7). I hope you’ll be inspired by the incredible stories from the Mara Basin in Kenya, where you’re bringing new life to the mighty Mara River (page 12).

You’re also helping us monitor, protect and increase dwindling animal populations across the world. Read about how we’re making great strides towards our goal of doubling wild tiger numbers by 2022 (page 9), and how you’re helping us protect African elephants from illegal wildlife trade (page 7).

Find out why this year’s Earth Hour was your biggest show of support yet for our brilliant planet (page 6). Then discover why we’re encouraging young people to grow into the conservation champions of the future (page 15).

None of this would be possible without you. All your efforts – whether you sign up for Earth Hour, do incredible things to raise money, or add your voice to our campaigns – are helping to change our world for the better. Thank you.

Jess Murphy, editor [email protected]

P.S. We work with tigers and pandas, but cover much more – from river restoration to habitat health, sustainable solutions and climate change. Explore the latest news on our Twitter feed: wwf.org.uk/twitter

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CONTENTS

4 Global successes Forests protected; marine

milestone; tiger threats tackled

6 An amazing hour How you made this year’s Earth Hour the best ever

8 Sundarbans spirit Protecting tigers in the Indian Sundarbans

10 Kenya’s grey giants Helping people live in harmony with elephants in Kenya’s Masai Mara

12 River lifeline WWF’s Alicia Doherty

reports on our work to keep the Mara river flowing

15 Green generation Inspiring the sustainability

champions of the future

THE IMPACT TEAMEditorJessie-May Murphy

DesignerBecky Alford at Neo weareneo.com

Assistant editorRuth Simms

Picture editorKate Foreshew

Senior editorGuy Jowett

Talk to our supporter care team: 01483 426333 [email protected]

Thanks to:Alicia Doherty, Barney Jeffries, Cara Clancy, Darren Shirley, Emma Scott, Liz Palmer (writers); Anthony Field, Cherry Duggan, Shareen Brown (contributors); Thomas Brzostowski (news); Joanne Rawlings and Gavin Spencer (events)

GUEST CONTRIBUTORDerrick Meegesh Derrick works in the Masai Mara in Kenya, helping people live in harmony with the grey giants of the region – majestic African elephants.Front cover: © STEVE BLOOM / STEVEBLOOM.COM

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Mapping success

6.9 MILLION HECTARES+Size of the Llanos de Moxos, now the world’s largest protected wetlands

£230,000Thanks to you, through the Size of Wales initiative, we’ve raised over £230,000 to protect Kenyan forests

BOLIVIA

World-record-breaking wetlands: our research has helped ensure the designation of the largest Ramsar conservation site in the world. The Llanos de Moxos – a diverse wetland region in the Bolivian Amazon – has been designated an area of international importance under the Ramsar Convention, thanks to research we conducted with the Bolivian government. This protection covers more than 6.9 million hectares. It’s great news for the hundreds of mammal, bird, reptile, amphibian, fish and plant species that rely on this important site.

wwf.org.uk/llanos

UK

Fundraising success: you’ve helped us raise over £230,000 to protect threatened forests in Kenya – far exceeding our initial target of £160,000. We’re working with the Size of Wales charity to protect tropical forests in Africa that cover an area equivalent to the size of Wales. This success means we can continue working to protect surviving patches of globally important and unique coastal forests in Kenya. These forests are home to precious wildlife such as the leopard, hunting dog, Ader’s duiker, Hirola antelope, bushbaby, sunbird and a wide variety of endemic plants.

wwf.org.uk/sizeofwales

RUSSIA

Tiger threats tackled: our involvement in discussions with the Russian government to strengthen laws relating to wildlife trade and to close legal loopholes has paid off. Under proposed new legislation, trade in tigers and other endangered wildlife – as well as transportation and possession of them – will be considered crimes. Until now, it was only the killing of an animal that was illegal. Russia is home to many of the world’s remaining wild tigers. With as few as 3,200 tigers left in the wild globally, protecting Russia’s endangered populations is an important step.

wwf.org.uk/tigers

THE LATEST NEWS FROM AROUND THE WORLD CAN BE FOUND ON OUR WEBSITE EVERY DAY – WWF.ORG.UK/NEWS

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1 MILLION+hectares of marine protected area established in Mozambique

3,200There are only an estimated 3,200 tigers left in the wild

20-30%New trawling ban will help some marine fish populations increase by 20-30%

1STFiji Albacore Tuna Longline Fishery has become the first in Fiji to achieve MSC certification

MOZAMBIQUE

Marine milestone: we’ve helped ensure the Primeiras and Segundas, a diverse 10-island archipelago in Mozambique, has been approved as a marine protected area, making it Africa’s largest coastal marine reserve. We’ve worked for eight years to protect the area, which has been threatened by destructive fishing methods, overfishing and unregulated tourism. The reserve covers more than one million hectares and protects extensive mangrove forests, seagrass beds, coral reefs and wildlife including marine turtles and dugongs. We’ll continue working on the conservation and sustainable management of Mozambique’s marine and coastal resources.

wwf.org.uk/mozambique

HONG KONG

Trawling ban: after eight years of our campaigning, a long-awaited ban on trawling in Hong Kong is now in force. For decades, indiscriminate trawling has resulted in damage to the seabed and local marine ecosystem. Hong Kong’s first fisheries management measure will help protect its seas and could potentially increase the populations of fish species such as croakers and groupers by between 20-30%. Now we’re calling on the Chinese government to help those affected in the fishing community to switch to other livelihoods such as marine ecotourism.

wwf.org.uk/hongkong

FIJI

Tuna goes sustainable: the Fiji Albacore Tuna Longline Fishery has become the first in Fiji to achieve Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) certification – an assurance that it uses sustainable fishing practices. The fishery was assessed by an independent certification body, and we were actively involved in the process. It’s a significant success in protecting the region’s tuna, bringing social and economic benefits to Fiji and other Pacific island countries that depend on tuna. We’ll continue working with the fishing industry to get more sustainable seafood to your shops and conserve tuna populations.

wwf.org.uk/msc

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This year’s Earth Hour saw the biggest show of support yet for our brilliant planet. The celebrations kicked off in Samoa in the South Pacific, and by the time the party hit the UK we were ready for pandemonium. And McFly.

The band performed live on the night in panda onesies, after more than 10,000 of you challenged them on our Earth Hour Facebook page. Thousands of you watched the action from home, including the big switch offs, via our online live stream.

We also celebrated the UK’s unsung heroes of the environment – truly inspirational people taking positive actions in their communities. These ‘hidden heroes’ do amazing work – from campaigning for more sustainable UK eating habits, installing solar panels in schools, to a firefighter who transformed his workplace into London’s greenest fire station.

We loved hearing from those of you who were inspired by our ‘60 things to do in the dark, from spooky story sessions to candlelit yoga. Thanks for making it a night to remember!

wwf.org.uk/earthhour

11 MILLION+PEOPLE DID IT IN THE DARK IN THE UK

16,000PEOPLE SHARED THEIR PLANS ON OUR UK INTERACTIVE MAP

34,000 EARTH HOUR LIVE FOOTAGE RECEIVED OVER 34,000 VIEWS DURING THE HOUR

4MCFLY PANDAS PERFORMED A LIVE ACOUSTIC EARTH HOUR GIG

DID YOU DO IT IN THE DARK?On Saturday 23 March millions of people across the UK and around the world did it in the dark. Of course, we’re talking about WWF’s Earth Hour 2013!

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Standing up for nature

Tens of thousands of African elephants are killed each year for their ivory, and much of it is sold in Thailand – the world’s largest unregulated ivory market – as Thai ivory. So earlier this year we launched a global petition asking Thailand’s prime minister to ban the country’s ivory trade – and your response was incredible. Over 1.5 million WWF and Avaaz supporters signed the petition – and she listened.

At the opening of the meeting of the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) in Bangkok, she pledged that Thailand would take steps to end its ivory trade. We’re now calling for a timeline for the ban to be put in place.

We’ve made good progress in Thailand but there’s still work to be done closer to home. Although nearly 5,000

of you emailed your MPs to show your support for the UK’s National Wildlife Crime Unit, the government has not committed to funding the unit beyond 2013-2014. We’re strongly urging the government to support the unit’s long-term future.

YOU’VE RAISED A SWELL OF SUPPORT FOR OUR MORE FISH AND ILLEGAL WILDLIFE TRADE CAMPAIGNS THAT WILL HELP ENSURE A FUTURE FOR FISH AND PROTECT ELEPHANT POPULATIONS

» YOU CAN HELPWe won’t give up the fight against illegal wildlife crime. Support the campaign at wwf.org.uk/stopit

OVER 1.5 MILLION

OF YOU SIGNED THE PETITION TO BAN IVORY

TRADE IN THAILAND

For 30 years Europe’s Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) has been failing our seas and fishermen. Shockingly, up to half of all fish caught in European waters are thrown back into the sea, dead. Thankfully, the broken policy behind this problem is now under review, and nearly 200,000 people across Europe have supported our campaign for reform by signing our More Fish petition.

Earlier this year, 23,000 of you accepted our challenge to ‘paint a fish’ and send it to your MEP, asking the European Parliament to reform fisheries to help our seas and fish stocks recover.

And the good news is they’ve listened! The European Parliament voted overwhelmingly to reform the CFP and provide long-term stability to fishing communities and the marine environment they depend on.

Negotiators for the European Parliament still have to meet with fisheries ministers to thrash it out and we’re keeping up the pressure to make sure this happens.

» YOU CAN HELPThe battle’s not won. Follow the progress of the reform and help us change things for the better: wwf.org.uk/morefish

MORE FISH PLEASE

IVORY BAN WIN

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1,850WITH AROUND 1,850 INDIVIDUALS SURVIVING IN THE WILD, THE BENGAL TIGER IS THE MOST NUMEROUS SUBSPECIES OF TIGER

95%DURING THE LAST CENTURY OVER 95% OF THE WORLD’S WILD TIGERS HAVE BEEN WIPED OUT

2022WITH YOUR HELP, WE’RE WORKING TO DOUBLE WILD TIGER NUMBERS BY 2022

After two magical weeks of temples, festivals and delicious food, I didn’t think my Christmas holiday could get any better. And yet, just four hours after leaving Calcutta, I found myself in the Sundarbans with an inspiring bunch of people.

Stretching across Bangladesh and the West Bengal region of India, the Sundarbans is one of the world’s largest mangrove forests. It’s also one of the last remaining coastal habitats of the Bengal tiger.

I was lucky to spend a day navigating beautiful waterways with WWF’s Sundarbans wildlife gurus: Ratul, Sunit, Dev and Pankaj. Working here isn’t easy – the team has to operate in accordance

with the tides and I was told that they once lost 20 cameras, set up to monitor tiger numbers, because of unexpectedly high tides.

As the sun set, we anchored the boat and made our way to one of the fringe villages where the team is doing some amazing community work. Many thousands of villages in the Sundarbans are without safe and clean energy but this is dramatically changing with the help of WWF and other local groups.

They showed me a micro solar power station that WWF helped establish in 2011, which provides electricity to 50 homes, six shops and three community buildings. It means that families can cook and read more easily in the

evenings. Across this region, solar lights are also helping to deter any unwelcome visits from big cats.

It was great to see how we’re helping local people to plan, monitor and manage their own electricity. When the region is eventually connected to the state grid, these communities will be ready to sell their surplus energy and generate a sustainable source of income.

I didn’t see any tigers on my trip, but I met some incredible people – warm, funny and extremely dedicated. I was inspired by our shared commitment to the recovery of tiger numbers.

Find out how you’re helping us protect tigers: wwf.org.uk/tiger

THE SUNDARBANS SPIRITOn a visit to the Indian Sundarbans, WWF-UK’s Cara Clancy met the team that surveys a tiger stronghold, and was swept away by their enthusiasm

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COUNTING TIGERS

The Terai Arc landscape stretches over 950km across the Indian states of Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand, and southern Nepal. It’s thought to be home to around 500 tigers – meaning it has one of the highest densities of tigers in the world.

Now, for the first time, the governments of India and Nepal have launched a joint survey of tiger and prey populations across the entire Terai Arc region. This is great news for tiger conservation efforts in this area. With your support, we’re playing a key role in designing and carrying out the study, training forest staff and analysing the data.

Our teams in India and Nepal are setting hundreds of camera traps in protected areas, wildlife corridors and forests, and are looking for signs of tigers, such as footprints and scats. We’re using the images we capture to identify individual tigers. Tigers have stripe patterns that are as unique to each animal as our fingerprints are to us. We’re also studying the availability of prey, the condition of the habitat, and whether tigers can roam freely between areas.

The result will be a robust and scientifically accurate estimate of tiger numbers. It’ll help ensure that conservation objectives are considered in any plans that involve changes in the

use of land across this region. This will improve the survival prospects for wild tigers in this critical landscape.

By increasing the levels of protection for tigers worldwide and preserving their habitats, we’re making great strides towards our goal of doubling wild tiger numbers by 2022. It’s an ambitious plan but we’re confident that, with your help, we can guarantee a better future for these amazing animals.

As part of our wider goal to double the world population of wild tigers, we’re taking part in a landmark survey to monitor Bengal tiger numbers in the Terai Arc region of India and Nepal

» YOU CAN HELPOur tiger adopters also play an important role in helping to protect tigers. You can join them at wwf.org.uk/tigeradopt

» LOOK OUT FOR TIGERS...We’re launching an exciting new UK partnership in July, supporting our global tiger programme, including work in Nepal. More in your next issue of Impact.

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GUARDIANS OF THEMARA

CONFLICT BETWEEN PEOPLE AND AFRICAN ELEPHANTS IN KENYA’S MASAI MARA IS ON THE RISE –– BUT WE’RE WORKING TO IMPROVE RELATIONSHIPS IN THE REGION…

It’s a phenomenal spectacle. Every year, wildebeest, zebras and gazelles cross the Mara River in their hundreds of thousands, on their migration from the Serengeti in Tanzania to the lush savannah of Kenya’s Masai Mara. They’re watched hungrily by lions and leopards, cheetahs and hyenas.

All of these animals, however, fall into the shadow of the grey giants of the region: African elephants. The herds are a majestic sight. But not everyone in the Mara is pleased to see them.

LAND BATTLESAs the human population grows and Kenya’s economy develops, habitats are lost to logging and expanding agriculture. And the space that African elephants have to roam is decreasing.

Elephants following their traditional migration pathways find roads, fields and villages where there was once forest and savannah. This is bringing these animals into conflict with people as they raid crops and damage buildings. It’s a sad fact that more than 200 people have been killed by elephants in Kenya in the last seven years. And that some farmers lose a year’s crop to elephant raids.

Not surprisingly, elephants are often killed and injured in retaliation for crop damage and loss of life. And that’s particularly worrying at a time when poaching is rising sharply: tens of thousands of elephants are killed each year for their tusks, owing to an increasing demand for ivory in Asia.

We want people, elephants and other animals to be able to thrive together in the Mara. We’re helping people use some ingenious ways to keep elephants away from crops – such as ropes soaked in chilli and diesel, a smell that elephants hate. Rows of beehives also work well – elephants are terrified of bees, and the honey provides useful extra income for the farmers.

More than that, though, we want people to benefit from living alongside elephants – because that gives the people more of an incentive to protect these animals. So we’ve been supporting projects such as the Oloisukut Conservancy, run by the Masai, to develop conservation opportunities that directly benefit the local community.

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GROWING UP AS A MASAI BOY, I HAD THE WHOLE WORLD TO PLAY IN. ALL THIS LAND, THE FOREST, NATURE ALL AROUND. I LEARNED SO MANY THINGS – BUT THE MOST FUNDAMENTAL THING I LEARNED WAS TO RESPECT NATURE.My father was a nature warden, so I grew up with an appreciation and love for conservation. After leaving university, I came home to help set up the conservancy – to give something back to my community.

Oloisukut Conservancy manages the land and the wildlife that uses the area. It’s run purely by the Masai community,

and it’s about conserving our culture as well as our wildlife. The conservancy is very important because for the Masai Mara ecosystem to survive, we have to secure the wildlife corridors – pieces of land that animals migrated through before it was divided by agriculture and development. We had to lobby hard for the 50,000 acres of land we have now, but I’d love to see the conservancy grow, with more land for elephants and other wildlife.

Our conservancy is particularly important for elephants because the mixture of scrubland savannah and woodland savannah provides plenty of food when the elephants are mating. The forest also acts as a

nursery – the elephants give birth in the conservancy and stay here until their young are old enough to survive in the harshness of the savannah.

But we face significant challenges. Some conservancy members and landowners aren’t sure that conservation is the right thing to do as they haven’t seen any financial benefit yet. That’s why tourism is so important – it’s a way for the community to benefit from conservation.

Poaching is a huge problem. Sadly, just the other day three elephants were killed at the edge of the conservancy and our rangers face a huge task.

I’D LOVE TO SEE THE CONSERVANCY GROW SO WE CAN SECURE MORE LAND FOR ELEPHANTS TO BREED IN.

WWF supporters are really helping though – we’ve got new equipment that will aid us with the logistics of what we do here, and hopefully we’ll soon be able to start employing more rangers. We’re glad we’ve got a chance to tell our story.

MASAI NATUREDerrick Meegesh, who manages the WWF-supported Oloisukut Conservancy, explains how the Masai approach to conservation is offering hope for elephants in the Mara

SEE LIFE IN THE FIELDWe’re working on an exciting project, using new technology to bring our work in the field to life. We’re setting up camera traps to help monitor wildlife movement through key areas, and providing smartphones and solar power to allow rangers to report on their work more easily.

MASAI MARA SPECIAL FEATURE

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» YOU CAN HELPFind out how you can help us reduce human-elephant conflict, and see some of Derrick’s amazing camera-trap images from the area: wwf.org.uk/helpmara

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An adult elephant will drink about 225 litres of water a day – that’s a lot of water. Elephant herds of the Mara and the Serengeti need the Mara River to be healthy, as do the countless other animals and more than a million people who live in the Mara Basin.

But Kenya is changing and the river is under huge pressure. As the global and local population grows, demand for food grows too. More water is being taken from the river for agriculture, as well as for people’s domestic needs. We’re here to see what the issues are, and what WWF is doing to help maintain the Mara for all the people and wildlife that depend on it.

Our journey begins in the Mau Forest, the headwaters for the Mara River. Here, we see signs of deforestation, with large areas converted to farmland, sometimes right down to the water’s edge. This is causing massive erosion craters along the banks, which means more sediment is entering the river, reducing the water quality and flow rates. We’re working to protect the forest with local community forest associations – replanting indigenous trees, managing grazing to control erosion and reducing local deforestation for charcoal.

Downstream, past the dry plains of the Rift Valley, we enter tourism central. There are between 150 and 200 tourist lodges near Kenya’s Masai Mara Nature Reserve (but far fewer in the Serengeti National Park on the Tanzanian side of the river, which has better regulation). Many take water directly from the river and others allow raw sewage to be pumped back in. This is having a big impact on water quality and quantity.

We visited a few lodges doing some great work in reducing the impact of tourism, including better waste management systems. At one camp they’ve made an artificial wetland that filters the wastewater naturally before it goes back into the river. And while my form of testing (the sniff test!) isn’t scientific, it’s clear the water is in a much better state after filtration.

Our HSBC-funded project will encourage similar systems of wastewater management in many more lodges. The motivation for the business is an easy one – they know that without this river there would be no elephants, no wildebeest, no hippos, lions or leopards. Which means there’d be no tourism industry. Tourism is vital for the economies of both Kenya and Tanzania, so it’s important to ensure it’s managed sustainably.

What becomes evident throughout my trip is that the people, the industries, the agriculture and the wildlife are inextricably linked to the Mara and its tributaries. Water is life, and the local people know it’s something they need to protect. It’s uplifting to know I’m part of something that’s making a difference – to see that our work on the ground is helping ensure a future for this vital river, and all who rely on it.

MARA LIFELINEElephants, people and hundreds of other species depend on the Mara River. WWF-UK’s Alicia Doherty travelled to the area to see how we’re protecting this vital waterway

» FIND OUT MORERead about our water work in the Mara on our blog site: wwf.org.uk/riverblog

MASAI MARA SPECIAL FEATURE

Top right: WWF-UK’s Alicia Doherty takes the sniff test. Above: tree seedlings at the Karen Blixen Ecolodge. Below: a member of the Mara Water Users’ Association

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RIVER BANK SOLUTIONSMaking sure there’s enough water for people and nature is one of the biggest challenges the world faces over the coming decades.

Thanks to the five-year HSBC Water Programme, we’re working with local governments, businesses and communities to protect rivers and ecosystems in some of the world’s most important freshwater places – the Yangtze, Ganges and Mekong rivers, the Pantanal wetland in Brazil and the African Rift Valley, of which the Mara is a part.

In the Mara we’re supporting better farming practices, protecting riverbanks and vital wetlands, reducing pollution from gold mining, and helping tourism businesses to use water more efficiently.

wwf.org.uk/marabasin

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GO ON, DO IT FOR THE PANDAJO RAWLINGS FROM OUR EVENTS TEAMEXPLAINS WHY SHE’S SO INSPIRED BYOUR FABULOUS FUNDRAISERSThe things I do for WWF… yes, that’s me looking slightly ridiculous in the photo. Just when I think I’ve seen the last of this picture, one of my WWF colleagues always finds a way to drag it out! But I don’t mind really – dressing up for a silly photo is nothing in comparison to what some of you do for us.

From marathons to mammoth cycle rides, and from 5k runs to triathlons, what you guys are doing is truly inspiring. In return for your hard work and dedication, what I’m really keen to ensure is that everyone who takes part in an event feels part of The Panda Made Me Do It team. I love meeting you at events. For me, nothing quite beats the feeling of actually being there to cheer you on or seeing you cross the finish line.

It’s always great to see the look on fundraisers’ faces when they realise they’ve achieved what they set out to do. It’s at that moment that I want to throw my arms around them and shout “thank you!”. And sometimes, I do.

The simple fact is, despite the thousands of pounds you already raise through events, we always need more of you to step up and take on a challenge to help fund our vital work around the globe. So if you think that 2013 is the year that you might finally get around to running that marathon or doing that swim, then please get in touch and sign up to join the hundreds of others already in ‘Team Panda’.

Once you’ve signed up we’ll send you some goodies, such as a fundraising pack, a WWF sports vest, training advice and e-newsletters. You’ll also get lots of support from us along the way – and the warm feeling that comes from being part of something special. So go on, do it for the Panda!

Now, where did I put that snorkel?

Sign up and get involved: wwf.org.uk/events

TEAMPANDA

GO ON, DO IT FOR THE PANDA

SIGN UP AND GET INVOLVED: WWF.ORG.UK/EVENTS

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During my time with WWF-UK’s schools team, I’ve been privileged to see the work of some really great schools in helping their pupils not only learn about the issues facing our planet, but also take practical action to address them.

Many of these children have an infectious passion for the natural world and want to help safeguard it. And we know from experience that the more involved they are in planning and leading ‘green’ activities, the more they feel that they can make a difference.

That’s what our Green Ambassadors scheme is all about: helping primary schoolchildren to lead the mission to make their schools more sustainable. Since we launched it in 2011, 2,000 schools have signed up. That’s over

30,000 children taking positive action for the planet.

And last summer, nearly 70 young champions of the environment met WWF-UK’s president, HRH The Prince of Wales, when he hosted the first Green Ambassador summit, at his Highgrove home.

It was incredible. Two wonderful days of creative, nature-focused activities involving art, photography, storytelling and writing left our committed 8-11-year-olds tired but inspired. And I have to admit that their youthful enthusiasm left me tired but inspired too!

Find out how you can help us create a new generation of sustainability champions at wwf.org.uk/greenambassadors

ENVIRONMENTAL CHAMPIONS

We’re excited to share another development with you that aims to inspire a new generation of conservationists. The Living Planet Centre, our new green building in Woking, opens this autumn. It has been designed and built thanks to a generous £5 million donation from a longstanding supporter. For the first time, we’ll have a visitor experience that showcases the wonders of the natural world and helps us engage more people in our global work – and it’s environmentally friendly and sustainable.

We’ll have an interactive learning suite where young people can take part in exciting eco-missions linked to forests, fresh water, oceans and wildlife. We’re also strengthening our schools and education programmes, with curriculum-linked environmental workshops.

From the moment you arrive, we want you to be utterly inspired about our brilliant planet and how your support is helping us to protect some of its most vulnerable animals, places and people.

Make sure you come and visit!

Find out more about visiting our new building: wwf.org.uk/visitus

BRINGING OUR WORK TO LIFE

Young people can be fantastic champions for change. That’s why we’re striving to inspire pupils around the UK. Cherry Duggan, who heads our work with schools and youth, explains how

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THANKS FOR ALL THE FISH

Thank you for painting thousands of fish for healthy seas –– your MEPs listened and voted to save our seas.

It was only half the battle – now it’s the turn of the fisheries ministers. We still need you to make waves to show your support for sensible fishing that doesn’t bankrupt our oceans. If we work together, we can help our fish stocks recover.

You can keep supporting our campaign at wwf.org.uk/morefish

100%RECYCLED MAGAZINE

JUNE

2011

WWF.ORG.UK• IMPACT • JUNE 2013

WWF-UK, registered charity number 1081247 and registered in Scotland number SC039593. A company limited by guarantee number 4016725. © 1986 panda symbol and ® “WWF” Registered Trademark of WWF-World Wide Fund For Nature (formerly World Wildlife Fund), WWF-UK, Panda House, Weyside Park, Godalming, Surrey GU7 1XR, t: +44 (0)1483 426333, e: [email protected], wwf.org.uk

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Why we are here

To stop the degradation of the planet’s natural environment and

to build a future in which humans live in harmony and nature.

Why we are here

wwf.org.uk

To stop the degradation of the planet’s natural environment and

to build a future in which humans live in harmony with nature.

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