Together possible - Program contribution WWF Switzerland Global Engagement Program (GEP) 2023–2024

The world faces an unprecedented ecological crisis due to the over-exploitation of natural resources and global warming, which threatens the functioning of ecosystems and therefore the people that depend on them for their livelihood and survival. At the global level, the scale of destruction to date is immense: 35% of global forests have been lost and an additional 10 million hectares are destroyed annually, the number of overfished stocks has tripled in half a century and more than half of the world’s natural freshwater ecosystems have been destroyed, eradicating the income foundation of communities across the global South.

The unparalleled loss of natural habitats and related ecosystem services has wide-ranging knock-on effects as they constitute the very foundation for livelihood of millions of people, decrease resilience of people towards external shocks and prepare the ground for the spread of zoonotic diseases such as Covid-19. The Global South experiences higher negative impacts due to often lacking good governance, low gender equality and shrinking space for civil society. Unless environmental degradation is reversed, inequality, vulnerability and poverty challenges will be exacerbated whilst humanitarian crises, migratory pressure and the spread of zoonotic diseases multiply.

Outcome 1 - Engagement, Commitment & Action:
In 2021, WWF-CH contributed to programs that facilitated behavioural change of duty bearers and led them to incorporate sustainability and natural conservation considerations into policymaking and/or business decisions. Some key examples:
In the Philippines, WWF and the government of the municipality of Donsol implemented successfully three of ten milestones of the city’s 10-year waste management plan. The municipality adapted WWF’s “Plastic Smart Cities” Action Plan through an executive order.
In Tanzania, a new project under WWF’s Forest Landscape Restoration Initiative supported the Restoration Opportunity Assessment Methodology process in Tanzania and through that the Tanzanian National Forest Landscape Strategy, the country’s contribution to the Pan-African Forest Landscape Restoration Initiative (AFR100). 

Outcome 2 - Participation & Empowerment:
In 2021, WWF-CH worked with rightsholders and CSOs to strengthen their influence in decision-making processes regarding natural resources and natural resource management. Some key examples:
In Chile, WWF supported the “Association of Indigenous Communities Wafo Wapi” on the path to effectively manage the area around Guafo Island as an officially recognized marine and coastal indigenous territory.
In Colombia, community members in the Amazon region were trained in the use of GPS, in simple computer applications and geographical information systems for the preparation of land use plans and in land use and forest monitoring, as well as in more sustainable production systems. 

Outcome 3 - Awareness & Education:
In 2021, 34'174 members in Switzerland (18’102 girls/16’067 boys/5 unknown) acquired new or improved skills through the program’s activities. Children and young people acquired an understanding and appreciation of animals and habitats all over the world, learned about complex environmental problems and solutions, and about the impacts that individual decisions can have on people and the planet.

Outcome 4 - Ecosystems & Livelihoods:
In 2021, WWF-CH contributed to projects/programs that fostered natural conservation and livelihood activities across the Global South: On 2’234’637 ha WWFCH improved management and/or increased protection, on 1’969’085 ha WWF-CH assessed stable or increased biodiversity, and 32’772 t CO2 were reduced through improved biodigesters/cookstoves, reforestation and agroforestry projects and by applying safe water filters replacing firewood for water boiling purposes in India, Kenya, Ecuador, Honduras and Tanzania.

Being an independent civil society organisation organized in a global network, WWF has a long track record of engagement with CSOs, communities, community-based organisations, and civic institutions in a wide range of countries and contexts. WWF-CH’s role in strengthening local civil society varies depending on each national context and the strategy of the WWF partner office.

In each of its projects, WWF collaborates with rights-holder groups and wider civil society to strengthen partnership opportunities with duty-bearers and governments to ensure representation of interests, as well as alignment with and achievement of national priorities and enhancement of national ownership.

For many years, WWF-CH as well as WWF’s international network have been committed to progressive employment conditions and strengthening gender equality at all levels. To further build staff capacity in gender mainstreaming and human rights-based approach, WWF-CH developed a comprehensive training course for local WWF trainers on human rights due diligence in conservation projects (30 WWF offices involved).

With new SDC structures in place, WWF-CH aims for a closer collaboration with SDC’s Green Cluster in the future, thereby strengthening common knowledge on the preservation and valorization of ecosystem services for livelihoods.

Outcome 1: Engagement, Commitment & Action
Duty bearers have improved dialogue, planning, decision making and governance for sustainable development and responsible management of natural resources.

Outcome 2: Participation & Empowerment
Rights-holders and CSOs are strengthened to influence decisionmaking processes regarding natural resources and to be involved in natural resource management.

Outcome 3: Awareness & Education
Improved skills for children and adolescents to enable them: to understand themselves as part of nature; to develop empathy for all living beings; to recognize that their own actions have local and global consequences and to subsequently take responsibility for their actions (for this outcome no SDC-program contribution must be used).

Outcome 4: Ecosystems & Livelihoods
Health of ecosystems is improved or preserved, Green House Gases (GHG) reduced, resilience against climate change is improved; and people and communities in project areas are experiencing improved livelihood and are equitably receiving benefits from natural resources.

Outcome 1: WWF-CH strengthens civil society and country ownership in accordance with the provisions of the “OECD-DAC Recommendation on Enabling Civil Society” and the relevant “GPEDC principles”. 

Outcome 2: WWF-CH and the SDC Green Cluster share experiences in a common learning process on the preservation and valorization of ecosystem services for livelihoods.

Phase 2 01.01.2023 - 31.12.2024   (Completed)