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World Wildlife Fund

The world’s largest conservation organisation, the World Wide Fund for Nature, popularly known
as the World Wildlife Fund was established in 1961 with the purpose of wildlife conservation and
environmental protection. The organisation’s current mission lies in ‘building a future in which
people live in harmony with nature.’ They employ more than 5,900 people and have more than 5
million members worldwide.

Their activities are concentrated around 6 focus areas– climate, food, forests, freshwater,
marine, and wildlife. With offices located more than 100 countries, they aim to elicit global
change by targeting the following global priority drivers of environmental change–
● Public sector finance
● Private sector finance
● Business practices
● Laws and regulations
● Consumption choices

WWF has currently focused its efforts into conservation of 36 priority species in 35 priority
places and into protection of 6 priority footprint areas. Going from supporting 356 global
conservation projects in the 1960s to having supported more than 12,000 such projects since
1985 alone, WWF has poured more than US$ 1 billion into its conservation efforts till date. A
few notable projects include the Project Tiger which was launched in 1973 in collaboration with
the Government of India, and the Black Rhino project in Africa.

Stages of development

1. Entrepreneurial stage
After his observations of an environmental crisis in Africa, it was in 1960 that Sir Julian Huxley
realised the need for an organisation dedicated to the conservation of wildlife. In December that
year he published a series of articles in the UK’s Observer Newspaper regarding the issue
which received a strong reaction from an unknown businessman. This benefactor sowed, in
Huxley’s mind, the seeds of the idea for establishing an international organisation aimed at
raising funds for the conservation of wild species.

Thereafter Huxley contacted ornithologist Max Nicholson, Director General of Britain's Nature
Conservancy, who took up the challenge with enthusiasm. Together they gathered a group of
scientists, advertising and public relations experts to establish this organization. This life cycle
stage lasted for a very short period of time as Sir Huxley was able to form an organization and
secure fundings very quickly. The initial mission of the organisation was the conservation of
wildlife.

2. Collectivity stage
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The organisation was officially founded by Sir Julian Huxley, E. M. Nicholson, Sir Peter Scott,
Guy Mountfort, and Victor Stolan on 29th April 1961 when they signed the Morges Manifesto.
WWF was registered as a charity, which allowed them to seek international funding. To be more
efficient in their fundings and projects, the founders’ approach was to set up offices in different
countries. These offices were called National Appeals, which were required to send about two-
thirds of the funds they raised to the international office and to utilize the remaining funds on
their own conservation projects.

WWF was involved in wildlife projects across the globe with various organizations such as the
International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), Charles Darwin foundation and the
Smithsonian Institute. This led to rapid growth of the organisation due to which they were
compelled to move to a bigger and more modern office block in Gland, Switzerland. They set up
a US$10 million fund, known as ‘The 1001: A Nature Trust’ in 1970, to help meet their basic
administration costs.

The major service offering of the organisation at this time was protection of wildlife and their
habitat.

3. Formalisation stage
In the early years of the 1980s WWF experienced growth from a small organization into an
international institution. Its scope now not only included protecting endangered species and
natural habitats but also environmental conservation in the form of sustainable farming, global
warming and climate change.

The WWF established collaboration with the IUCN and the United Nations Environment
Programme (UNEP) to come up with a “World Conservation Strategy”. As a learning
organisation WWF therefore invested in reflecting on how to develop effective, strong
partnerships. In this period the organization needed to integrate development with conservation.
In 1986 the organization changed its name from ‘World Wildlife Fund’ to ‘World Wide Fund for
Nature’ to reflect their increased scope of activities. This move can be interpreted as the leaders
defining a direction for the future of organization.

The organization revised its mission and strategy in the 1990s. The mission was broken out into
three categories:
“1. the preservation of biological diversity
2. promoting the concept of sustainable use of resources
3. reducing wasteful consumption and pollution.”

The 1990s strategy aimed to decentralize WWF's decision-making, and to increase cooperation
with the local people. In particular, WWF wanted to involve rural communities in making
decisions relating to their environments. This could be seen as a way of delegation of
responsibility. The organization experienced a new approach to leadership in 1993 as
Dr.Claude Martin became Director General, replacing Charles de Haes. The leadership under
Martin involved developing “Target Driven Programmes” and partnerships.
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4. Elaboration stage

At the start of the 21st century as it underwent global expansion, WWF entered into its
Elaboration stage. Registered in Switzerland as WWF International, the head office located in
Gland oversees the working of 85 offices of varying scales and functional abilities segregated
into two levels– National (autonomous) and Program (supervised). It handles policy making,
global partnerships, and international campaigns.

The responsibilities of national and program offices include managing international campaigns,
conducting scientific research, fundraising, advertising, liaising with governments, and raising
awareness about key environmental issue. The division of responsibilities, as well the protocols
and rules to be followed while carrying them out, is clearly laid out by the head office.

The previously set up National Appeals were later renamed as National Organizations. Each
National Organization is now a separate legal entity, responsible to its own Board and accountable
to its donors. WWF International is accountable to the National Organizations, its donors, and to the
Swiss authorities. Most of the members of WWF International Board and committees are drawn from
the Boards and Chief Executive Officers of the National Organizations

All decision making is organised at 5 levels namely the International Board, the WWF Council,
the Assembly, the Network Executive Team, and Committees. These committees are further
organized into categories– conservation, global partnership, communications and marketing, as
well as operations and network development.

As the organisation has grown, WWF's focus has evolved from purely localized efforts for
conservation of a single species to new horizons encompassing national, regional and global scales
of complexity. There was new found clarity in objectives which were clearly listed down as
· Slow down climate change
· Reduce toxification of the environment
· Protect oceans and fresh waters
· Stop deforestation
· Save species

WWF’s goal for the future is to assume a role as a credible and influential global leader capable
of mobilising change by exercising influence at all levels. It aims to lead from the top-down
through the highest levels of governance while also staying firmly in contact with ground realities
and creating a visible impact.

The organisation envisions itself as one that is actively involved in "doing conservation", instead
of simply participating in empty dialogue. It is safe to assume that WWF envisions itself as an
integrated organisation working determinedly towards fulfilling its mission.
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Organizational structure

Structurally, senior management is divided into divisions (Conservation, Oceans, Private Sector
Engagement, Forests, Markets and Food, Wildlife conservation, Fresh Water, Climate Change
and energy, Global partnerships and multilateral engagement, Development, Science) as well
as functions (General Counsel, Human Resources, Marketing and Communications, Finance)
This is congruent to an organisation with a hybrid structure expanding its services into multiple
domains to cater to the outside environment. This structure is ideal for mapping the organization
to the market.
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References:

50 years of Achievements. (n.d.). Retrieved from

http://wwf.panda.org/knowledge_hub/history/50_years_of_achievements/

50 years of environmental conservation. (n.d.). Retrieved from

http://wwf.panda.org/knowledge_hub/history/

History | WWF. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.worldwildlife.org/about/history

How is WWF run? (n.d.). Retrieved from https://wwf.panda.org/organization/

WWF from 1961 to 2006. (n.d.). Retrieved from

https://wwf.panda.org/knowledge_hub/history/wwf_conservation_1961_2006/