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History of The World Wildlife Fund
With a mission to stop the devastation to the earth's environment, The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) acts as a guardian to nature and all the ecological aspects of it. Their vision is a world where man and nature are existing in harmony together. Using means like, lobbying, activist campaigns and awareness raising, the WWF attempts to maintain natures biological diversity, promote sustainable use of natural resources, and reduce global pollution and waste.
Sir Julian Huxley is the founder of the WWF. He started the movement in 1960, after visiting Africa in order to write about wildlife preservation in that area of the world. Shocked by what he encountered he predicted that many of that area's natural wildlife and resources could be gone within 20 years.
As a response to these predictions a concerned group of experts in these fields came together to establish a movement that we now know as The World Wildlife Fund. It was decided to work from out of Switzerland as a base for their operations.
Around that same time period London Zoo kept a very popular attraction, a Panda bear, which went by the name of Chi Chi. In turn the WWF group decided to use the bear as a logo and the brand new organization was ready to start.
In its first 3 years of operation, the organization raised a generous sum of approximately 1.9 million dollars and used it all for projects to preserve vulnerable parts of nature throughout the world. Well known organizations like the Charles Darwin Foundation and the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources, all ranked amongst the list of those that received substantial cash donations to carry out the projects.
Today the WWF is active in 24 countries all around the world. Additionally 5 other movements have affiliated themselves with the WWF but carry on under a different name. Offices of the WWF exist in more than 40 countries worldwide.
The main offices for the WWF are divided into just 2, one in Brussels for dealing with the European Union, and one in Washington to deal with the global issues.
In 1979 the WWF became too large to maintain its base of operations in Switzerland so it moved to the city of Gland to continue its projects. The name World Wildlife Fund became unsuitable and was changed to World Wildlife Fund For Nature in 1986. To this day the United States and also Canada continue to use the original name.
subsections under this page will include:
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conservation |
societies protecting and conserving the earths resources |
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wildlife |
societies dedicated to saving wildlife and Sanctuaries |
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