World Wildlife Fund (WWF)

The World Wildlife Fund is one of Canada's leading conservation organizations which work to protect the world's biological diversity, assure that the use of renewable natural resources are maintainable, and publicize the reduction of pollution and wasteful consumption. This organization works to reduce humanity's impact on natural habitats. WWF is one of the worlds largest and most respected conservation organizations. They have over 90 offices in over 40 countries around the world. Since 1985, WWF has completed over 11 000 projects in more than 100 countries.
The WWF has had many projects that have been a success and has helped to maintain the abundance and diversity of wildlife. For example, over 10 million hectares of wilderness in the Mackenzie River Basin are protected from industrial development. This benefits the many different species that live in that region including barren-ground caribou, wolves, lynx, grizzly bears, moose and huge populations of migratory ducks, geese, swans, shorebirds and loons. Another example of a successful WWF project includes shifting shipping lanes in the Bay of Fundy. This helped to decrease the risk of deadly collisions with endangered right whales.

 This is a picture of a Northern Atlantic right whale. 

The Arctic is the largest but least inhabited region on Earth. It is one of the most important places on the planet as it is the most biologically productive and diverse. The Bering Sea attracts many animals from the Arctic, but the Arctic's future is at stake. In the United States, more than half the fish caught every year come from this sea. The Arctic is now threatened due to overfishing, toxic pollution, and more. WWF has been working to battle these threats to protect the Arctic's biodiversity since 1992.
WWF has had a lot of success in conserving the biodiversity of our ecosystems and this is another example of what they have done. An area off the coast of Baffin Island, Nunavut is now protected. This benefits the threatened bowhead whales as well as polar bears, Canadian geese, snow geese, halibut, narwhal, and many other species. The area provides protection from their main predator, the orca whales. Plans to protect this area had been floating around since the 1980's and now that the area is protected, the bowhead whales have a much larger chance for survival. When bowhead whales return to this area each year, it shows that there is hope for this species who is threatened. If this area is permanently protected, bowhead whales will be around for a long time to come.

 

This is a map of where the bowhead whales can be safe. 

 

This is a picture of a bowhead whale in its sanctuary. 

In the news, there are stories of how humans are destroying the planet everyday. But humans are doing many things to save the biodiversity of our ecosystems and the World Wildlife Fund is one of the organizations that work to do this. The examples that were talked about before are projects that WWF has completed which have helped to save the biodiversity of our ecosystems. Humans have positively affected the biodiversity on earth. 

References

"Conservation Successes in Canada." WWF - Local to Global Environmental Conservation. Web. 24 Sept. 2010. <http://wwf.ca/>.

World Wildlife Fund - Wildlife Conservation, Endangered Species Conservation. Web. 24 Sept. 2010. <http://www.worldwildlife.org/home-full.html>

WWF - WWF. Web. 24 Sept. 2010. <http://wwf.panda.org/>.

"Bowhead Whale Conservation: Canadian Geographic Magazine - Explorer." Canadian Geographic - Canadian Geographic Magazine. Web. 24 Sept. 2010. <http://www.canadiangeographic.ca/travel/great_places/explorer/mj05/five.asp>.

Blogs I Commented On

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