© Karine Aigner/WWF-US
WWF statement on embedding human rights into nature conservation: progress, challenges and lessons

One year ago, we published the findings of the Independent Review we commissioned looking into how WWF addressed alleged reports of human rights abuses by some government rangers in Central Africa, India, and Nepal.

We embraced all 79 recommendations of the Independent Review in our Management Response and have been working collectively as a network to implement these through a dedicated three-year Action Plan.

However, we recognized that we need to accelerate our efforts and ensure consistency across all of our network. The Review was unsparing in its conclusion that WWF fell short of what should be expected of us and that we need to do more. And we are committed to learn from it and our efforts and continually improve how we can help make communities’ voices heard, have their rights respected, and advocate for governments to uphold their human rights obligations.

We will soon share a detailed Year 1 Implementation Update on our Action Plan where we will speak to the steps we are taking, the challenges we face and the lessons we are learning. The most important factor to achieving our vision — a world in which both people and nature thrive — is listening to the feedback offered to us, however challenging it may be.

Through listening and dialogue, in particular with the communities with whom we work, we will deliver on our commitments and ensure better conservation impact for people and for nature in every place we work.