WWF-India

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World Wide Fund for Nature-India, better known by its abbreviation WWF-India,Established as a Charitable Trust in 1969, has been devotedly working to protect and secure natural heritage and ecology for more than 50 years. It has an autonomous office, with the Secretariat based in New Delhi and various state, divisional and project offices spread across India. [1]

Contents

WWF-India is one of India’s leading conservation organizations. [2] , it has massed almost five decades of experience in the field. Having started with modest beginnings, the organisation has come a long way helped by the efforts of its founders and associates who volunteered their efforts to lend momentum to this movement in its initial years. [3]

Programmes

WWF-India today is engaged in many activities for protection and conservation of the environment in the Indian context. Climate change and energy conservation are among the chief areas of concern. The Forest and Biodiversity Conservation Division strives to promote and enhance conservation of forest ecosystems through a participatory approach involving key stakeholders in India. Through its Environment Education Programme and Education for Sustainable Development, it aims at strengthening individual and institutional capacity in nature conservation and environmental protection through widespread education and awareness. [4]

Education for Sustainable Development

WWF-India launched an Education for Sustainable Development program in June 2013, including a trainer kit with materials in six languages, English, Hindi, Assamese, Bengali, Kannada and Malayalam. [4] The program was targeted at teacher training and educational bodies responsible for curriculum.

As a pilot program, the WWF-India had introduced the program several months earlier in thirteen model schools. [5] One of the model schools, Salbari Higher Secondary School, was transformed by the program. Beyond cleaning up their school, the students set up a bird watching club, planted saplings with protective fencing, made a worm-compost pit, and started several other environmental projects. [4]

As of January 2015, the programme was active in four states. [6]

Controversy

The Silence of the Pandas is a documentary on WWF-International, and also focuses on WWF-India and other WWF branches. A year in the making, this film from the award-winning German film maker Wilfried Huismann sought to dispel the green image of the WWF. Behind the WWF's eco-facade, the film uncovered explosive stories from all around the world. [7]

There has also been a criticism of their tiger conservation projects. [8]

See also

Related Research Articles

The conservation movement, also known as nature conservation, is a political, environmental, and social movement that seeks to manage and protect natural resources, including animal, fungus, and plant species as well as their habitat for the future. Conservationists are concerned with leaving the environment in a better state than the condition they found it in. Evidence-based conservation seeks to use high quality scientific evidence to make conservation efforts more effective.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">International Union for Conservation of Nature</span> International organization

The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natural resources. Founded in 1948, IUCN has become the global authority on the status of the natural world and the measures needed to safeguard it. It is involved in data gathering and analysis, research, field projects, advocacy, and education. IUCN's mission is to "influence, encourage and assist societies throughout the world to conserve nature and to ensure that any use of natural resources is equitable and ecologically sustainable".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Habitat conservation</span> Management practice for protecting types of environments

Habitat conservation is a management practice that seeks to conserve, protect and restore habitats and prevent species extinction, fragmentation or reduction in range. It is a priority of many groups that cannot be easily characterized in terms of any one ideology.

The Centre for Environment Education (CEE) in India was established in August 1984 as a Centre of Excellence supported by the Ministry of Environment and Forests. The organisation works towards developing programmes and materials to increase awareness about the environment and sustainable development. The head office is located in Ahmedabad. The centre has 41 offices across India including regional cells in Bangalore (South), Guwahati, Lucknow (North), Ahmedabad (West) and Pune (Central); state offices in Delhi, Hyderabad, Raipur, Goa, Coimbatore; and several field offices. It has international offices in Australia and Sri Lanka.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">K. Ullas Karanth</span>

Kota Ullas Karanth is a conservation zoologist and a leading tiger expert based in Karnataka, India. He was the director of the Wildlife Conservation Society's India Programme. He is notable for pioneering the scientific use of camera traps in population density studies of large wild mammals in India. He was a Senior Conservation Scientist with the New York based Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and Technical Director of the WCS Tiger Conservation Program.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change</span> Ministry of the Government of India

The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) is an Indian government ministry. This ministry is headed by Secretary Rank senior most IAS officer. The ministry portfolio is currently held by Bhupender Yadav, Union Minister of Environment, Forest and Climate Change.

India is home to a large variety of wildlife. It is a biodiversity hotspot with various ecosystems ranging from the Himalayas in the north to the evergreen rainforests in the south, the sands of the west to the marshy mangroves of the east. India lies within the Indomalayan realm and is home to about 7.6% of mammal, 14.7% of amphibian, 6% of bird, 6.2% of reptilian, and 6.2% of flowering plant species. India's forests contain about 500 species of mammals and more than 1300 bird species.

The tiger is an iconic species. Tiger conservation attempts to prevent the animal from becoming extinct and preserving its natural habitat. This is one of the main objectives of the international animal conservation community. The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) has played a crucial role in improving international efforts for tiger conservation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">National Tiger Conservation Authority</span> Indian government agency

The National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) was established in December 2005, following a recommendation of the Tiger Task Force. The Prime Minister of India established it to reorganise the management of Project Tiger and many Tiger Reserves in India.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wildlife of Bhutan</span>

The Kingdom of Bhutan is a small, landlocked nation nestled in the southern slopes of the Eastern Himalaya. To its north lies the Tibet Autonomous Region of China and to the west, south and east lies the Indian states of Sikkim, Bengal, Assam and Arunachal Pradesh.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Conservation in India</span>

Conservation in India can be traced to the time of Ashoka, tracing to the Ashoka Pillar Edicts as one of the earliest conservation efforts in the world. Conservation generally refers to the act of carefully and efficiently using natural resources. Conservation efforts begun in India before 5 AD, as efforts are made to have a forest administration. The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change is the ministry responsible for implementation of environmental and forestry program in India, which include the management of national parks, conservation of flora and fauna of India, and pollution controls.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">World Wide Fund for Nature</span> International non-governmental environmental organization

The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) is a Swiss-based international non-governmental organization founded in 1961 that works in the field of wilderness preservation and the reduction of human impact on the environment. It was formerly named the World Wildlife Fund, which remains its official name in Canada and the United States. WWF is the world's largest conservation organization, with over five million supporters worldwide, working in more than 100 countries and supporting around 3,000 conservation and environmental projects. They have invested over $1 billion in more than 12,000 conservation initiatives since 1995. WWF is a foundation with 65% of funding from individuals and bequests, 17% from government sources and 8% from corporations in 2020.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anwaruddin Choudhury</span>

Anwaruddin Choudhury is an Indian naturalist, noted for his expertise on the fauna of North-East India.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sacred Himalayan Landscape</span>

The Sacred Himalayan Landscape is a 39,021 km2 (15,066 sq mi) large trans-boundary landscape in the eastern Himalayas encompassing temperate broadleaf and conifer forests, alpine meadows and grasslands, which harbour more than 80 mammal and more than 440 bird species. It extends from Nepal's Langtang National Park through Sikkim and Darjeeling in India to western Bhutan's Torsa Strict Nature Reserve. More than 73% of this landscape is located in Nepal, including Sagarmatha National Park, Makalu Barun National Park, and Kanchenjunga Conservation Area. About 24% is located in India, encompassing Khangchendzonga, Singalila and Neora Valley National Parks as well as Fambong Lho, Maenam, Senchal, Mahananda Wildlife Sanctuaries, Shingba and Barsey Rhododendron Sanctuaries and Kyongnosla Alpine Sanctuary.

The Conservation Education Centre (CEC) is the education and awareness wing of the Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS). The Conservation Education Centre is located on the BNHS Nature Reserve in Goregaon, Mumbai, India. The CEC came into existence on the BHNS Reserve in 1997.

Hemendra Singh Panwar is an Indian conservationist and civil servant, known for his efforts in the fields of wildlife and conservation. He was the first director of the Wildlife Institute of India and was the director of Project Tiger. The Government of India honoured him, in 2013, with Padma Bhushan, the third-highest civilian award, for his services to the environment and conservation.

Lavkumar Jiva Khachar or K.S. Lavkumar was an ornithologist, nature and wildlife conservationist from India.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Salbari Higher Secondary School</span> School in India

Salbari Higher Secondary School, a school in Salbari, Baksa, Assam, India, is situated in between the Ulubari village and Salbari bazaar. The school was established in 1955 to impart secondary education in Bodo and Assamese medium to the children of the rural and economically backward of the Baksa district. It is one of four schools in the state that are education for sustainable development model schools.

Gunjan Menon is an Indian wildlife film director, camerawoman, and National Geographic Explorer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mohammed Saleem</span> Indian environmental activist (born 1972)

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References

  1. "Where We Work". WWF India. Retrieved 24 February 2017.
  2. Chhabra, Dilpreet (6 May 2015). "Preserving the Future – digital campaign illuminates illegal trade in non-charismatic species". traffic.org. Retrieved 24 February 2017.
  3. "History". WWF-India: 40 years of Nature Conservation. Retrieved 24 February 2017.
  4. 1 2 3 Siddiqui Zaman, Rana (12 June 2013). "Lessons painted in green". The Hindu. New Delhi. Archived from the original on 24 February 2017. Retrieved 24 February 2017 via ENVIS Centre, Ministry of Environment & Forest, Govt. of India.
  5. Banga Chhokar, Kiran (2014). "Whole School Approach Approach Manual Manual" (PDF). wwfindia.org. WWF-India. p. 59. Retrieved 24 February 2017.
  6. Lalchandani, Neha (28 January 2015). "UNESCO releases global action programme on 'education in sustainable development'". The Times of India. Nagoya. TNN. Retrieved 24 February 2017.
  7. "WWF - Silence of the Pandas - Video Dailymotion". Dailymotion. 24 May 2013. Retrieved 24 February 2017.
  8. "India". pandaleaks.org. Retrieved 24 February 2017. Hundreds of thousands of Adivasi – people of the forest – are once again being driven out to make way for new tiger reserve.