• Animals

Now Designated Separately, Two African Elephant Species are Facing Extinction

• #30x30
• elephants
• endangered
• International Union for the Conservation of Nature
• IUCN
• red list
• threatened
• World Wildlife Fund
• WWF

Last week the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) released a new Red List conservation assessment for African elephants, evaluating the status of both the savanna elephant and the smaller forest elephant. 

Why This Matters: The IUCN Red List currently lists over 35,000 threatened species of plants, animals, insects, and even fungi. A UN report found that one million species could be threatened with extinction in the coming decades due to climate change, illegal poaching and trafficking, and habitat destruction.

• Politics

The Public is Ready to Recycle as Congress Reintroduces Sweeping Plastics Reform

• #BreakFreeFromPlastic
• Ocean Plastic
• plastic
• pollution
• recycling
• World Wildlife Fund
• WWF

Last week, federal legislators reintroduced the Break Free from Plastic Pollution Act, which would pass sweeping recycling and single-use plastic regulations.  Experts from the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) say that this bill has come at the right time, publishing a national poll that found 86% of Americans believe the U.S. must transition from a throw-away economy to one that emphasizes reuse and recycling.

Why This Matters: The U.S. is the largest plastic polluter in the world but only recycles 8.7% of its plastics. Much of that plastic takes the form of consumer packaging like plastic bags, wrappers, straws, and more.

• Land

WWF and AirWick Team Up to Reseed 1B Square Feet of Native Grassland

• grassland
• prairie
• WWF

Since 2009, the United States has lost 33 million acres of grassland and wildflower habitats in the US Great Plains, which equates to half the size of Colorado. For more than seven years, grasslands in this region have been plowed-up at an average rate of four football fields per minute, prioritizing row-crop agriculture over the […]

• Animals

WWF-Mongolia Completes Nationwide Survey of Snow Leopard Population

• conservation
• Himalayas
• snow leopard
• WWF

by Amy Lupica, ODP Staff Writer Mongolia has released its first nationwide snow leopard survey and the results are hopeful. Thanks to the survey, conservationists now know that Mongolia has about 953 snow leopards, whose numbers have been decreasing due to habitat fragmentation and clashes with humans.  This survey, conducted by WWF-Mongolia and partners including […]

• Forests

Deforestation Claims 160k Square Miles from 2004-17, WWF Report Reveals

• 30 by 30
• Amazon rainforest
• biodiversity
• deforestation
• WWF

Humans need forests for our survival, from the air we breathe to the wood we use. These ecosystems also provide livelihoods for people, offer watershed protection, prevent soil erosion, and mitigate climate change. Unfortunately, a new report from World Wildlife Fund (WWF) titled “Deforestation Fronts: Drivers and Responses in a Changing World” reveals that more […]

• Animals

Bison Herd Successfully Released to Native Lands in South Dakota

• bison
• conservation
• South Dakota
• WWF

On Friday the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) along with the Department of the Interior and leaders of the Rosebud Sioux tribe transferred and released 100 plains bison from the National Park Service to the newly-created Wolakota Buffalo Range on the land of the Sicangu Oyate, commonly known as the Rosebud Indian Reservation in South Dakota. […]