We ended last year with lots of lessons learned and began another committed to reestablishing and healing our relationship with nature. For our health, for social and economic well-being, we will continue working towards achieving a healthy planet for nature and people.
In the Oceans practice, Women from the community of San José were trained by WWF-Peru in the assembly of LED lights, a strategy that reduces incidental fishing of sea turtles. Additionally, WWF-Ecuador signed an agreement of understanding with the fishing sector and several fishing cooperatives in Galapagos.
In work related to Forests, WWF-Mesoamerica is supporting the strengthening of capacities for fire prevention in Guatemala. On the other hand, WWF-Colombia finished the SINAP Colombia Protected Areas Planning Guide. Moreover, in Peru, women forest entrepreneurs are leading the conservation and management of their territories. Lastly, Bolivia is making progress towards strengthening the forestry sector and preventing illegal timber trafficking.
With respect to the Wildlife practice, Argentina the citizen science platform turned one year old and recorded more than 170K observations.
Highilghted in the Governance practice, WWF-Colombia launched the radio program “Ancestral Footprints” for the indigenous governance in the Amazon. Likewise, indigenous communities and WWF-Chile called on the government to expedite the protection of Guafo island.
In Youth Advocacy, Generación 10, the regional initiative of youth for the planet, launched its first challenge and seeks one million actions for a healthy planet.
Additionally, in Education work, WWF-Bolivia launched its environmental education platform, providing a variety of resources and tools to teachers, students, and parents. Meanwhile, Colombia participated in this year's Wild Wisdom Quiz virtually and ranked third. On its behalf, Vida Silvestre Foundation trained 3,400 teachers on environmental issues. WWF-Mexico reached over 20 million online users through the Nature in Your Home program, which teaches families about Mexico’s nature and the importance of its conservation.
Enjoy this first edition of the year,
Roberto Troya
Vice president & Regional Director
Women from the San José community play a key role in protecting sea turtles
One of the main activities to protect turtles is installing LED lights in fishing nets, since studies from Baja California, Mexico, showed that they reduce bycatch by up to 60%. WWF-Peru joined these efforts in 2016, promoting the implementation of this technology at several of the country’s ports. To ensure success and inclusivity in this initiative, WWF-Peru has trained 24 women and 2 men from the community of San José, Lambayeque. This adds to other WWF activities focused on training fishermen, non-governmental organizations and state agencies to handle properly and release sea turtles to ensure their survival.
Agreement of understanding between WWF-Ecuador, the fishing sector, and the Galapagos fishing cooperatives
WWF-Ecuador, representatives of the industrial fishing sector, Galápagos fishing cooperatives, representatives of artisanal fishing cooperatives of Ecuador and the Ministry of Production, Foreign Trade, Investments and Fisheries, signed a historic memorandum of understanding for three years. This seeks to drive cooperation in the implementation of inclusive projects aimed at reducing pollution in the Galapagos Marine Reserve (RMG), and to strengthen the capacities of fishing cooperatives in the extraction, processing and commercialization of fishery products, respecting technical and scientific sustainability standards. “Only working together we can achieve the sustainability we want for our resources. We are united by the need to conserve fishing resources, which are part of Ecuador's biodiversity, for future generations”, said Tarsicio Granizo, Director of WWF-Ecuador, during the event's closure.
Strengthened capacities for fire prevention in Guatemala
WWF-Mesoamerica and the Canadian Embassy in Guatemala are supporting the National Council of Protected Areas (CONAP), through a project to build capacities for forest fire management in the Maya Biosphere Reserve. Part of the activities that have been developed are training sessions on the Incident Command System and forest fires origin determination and forensic causes, which was conducted with the support of the US Forest Service.
A planning and management guide for the National System of Protected Areas of Colombia
In December 2020, WWF-Colombia finished the SINAP Colombia Protected Areas Planning Guide. The instrument is key for all areas of the National System of Protected Areas to consolidate their planning and management effectiveness, as well as to increase the representation of ecosystems and to strengthen the participation of regional stakeholders and interest groups in conservation initiatives through governance models. This guide is a product of the GEF project for the consolidation of the National System of Protected Areas, in which WWF-Colombia, National Natural Parks of Colombia, the Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development, and the IDB participate.
Forest entrepreneurs: women leading their land’s conservation and management
Over the past 5 years, MDE Saweto worked side by side and strengthened 25 native communities with initiatives led by women. For all of them, a main ingredient has been the effort and tenacity of mothers, wives and daughters who seek not only to contribute to their community, their food security, and the conservation and management of their territories, but also committed to their own growth and autonomy.
The path to strengthening the forestry sector to prevent illicit activity in Bolivia
Within the frameworl of the Wildlife and Forests Alliance, a project financed by the European Union, WWF-Bolivia carried out an evaluation of the current state of the forest sector in the country. The goal is to design the necessary strategies with different actors, to strengthen the capacities of national and local authorities, community-based organizations and civil society and to improve the enforcement of the law aimed at reducing illicit timber trafficking in the Andes-Amazon region.
More than 170 thousand visits to ArgentiNat
The citizen science platform turned one year and it has proven to be important to connect people with nature with more than 5,800 active users; over 9,900 registered species and more than 600 new projects. New species were added, as well as new photographs, and distribution maps were expanded.
Indigenous communities and WWF-Chile call to expedite the protection of Guafo Island
Guafo Island is vital to the life, culture and spirituality of the Williche communities in the Southern Chiloé, and it is also a key point for the conservation of marine biodiversity in the Patagonia. With the support of WWF-Chile and artisanal fishermen, a group of eleven williche communities from Chiloé, grouped under the initiative "Wafo Wapi, ancestral territory of conservation," submitted a request to the Coastal Space of Native Peoples (ECMPO). This proposal was declared lawful in January 2020. One year after this milestone, WWF-Chile and Wafo Wapi made a new call to speed up this process, which is a pioneer within Chilean conservation.
WWF-Bolivia launched its environmental education platform
WWF-Bolivia officially launched educacion.wwfbolivia.org, a platform that provides a wide range of environmental educational resources for classrooms and informal education processes to teachers, parents, students, and the general public. In addition, the site seeks to bring users closer to the Environmental Education Centers, implemented by the Municipal Governments in the cities of La Paz, Tarija, Santa Cruz, Trinidad and Puerto Quijarro, and to the urban protected areas located in the same cities, which WWF supports.
Colombia participated in this year’s Wild Wisdom Quiz
WWF-Colombia carried out Wild Wisdom’s second edition, the competition that measures the environmental knowledge of youth between the sixth and the ninth grades. About 7 thousand students coming from 122 schools in 21 of the 32 regions of the country participated in this edition. The two national winners represented the country in the Wild Wisdom Quiz, which took place online on December 16, with students from India, Nepal, and Hong Kong. Colombia is the first and only country in the Americas that took part of this competition.
Vida Silvestre Foundation carried out 4 free virtual courses in 2020 to train teachers on environmental issues through their exclusive microsite. They trained more than 3,500 teachers (coming from formal and non-formal education) from all provinces of Argentina and other Spanish-speaking countries.
WWF takes nature to the home of millions of Mexicans in 2020
In order to adapt to the pandemic, which forced millions of Mexicans to stay at home, WWF-Mexico, in partnership with the Telcel-Telmex Foundation, developed the Nature In Your Home program to raise awareness among Mexican families about the country’s nature and the importance of its conservation, promoting art as a vehicle to transmit ideas and create empathy with society. The program seeks to make families aware of the importance of their decisions for conservation and had over 20 million web interactions, while nearly 6 thousand families took part in it. Nature In Your Home will continue in 2021.
