Category: Animal Law

A rare wildlife sighting of a calf swimming alongside its parents in Indonesia’s central Alor archipelago. Fishers spotted the calf in the bay of Mali Beach last October. Its presence indicates the success of several decades of community-led conservation efforts in these waters to protect and expand seagrass meadows. Seagrass meadows are vital habitat and food sources for dugongs and other marine life.

What is “impact investing” and how can it help save our planet? Lots of companies are advancing innovative solutions for environmental challenges, but struggle to raise the capital needed to grow their business. Impact investing can help. Learn all about it in this week’s episode of Nature Breaking.

Finance has a critical role to play in achieving conservation goals. Simply put, saving an ecosystem, or a species, isn’t free. Those efforts require lots of scientific research and analysis, tools, infrastructure, and staff. WWF has been at the forefront of a variety of innovative ways to finance those efforts – from Project Finance for Permanence initiatives, to debt for nature swaps, and more. Today we’re going to talk about another approach that’s gaining steam: impact investing. Impact investing is all about making investments with the goal of advancing social or environmental outcomes – not about maximizing financial returns. Joining Nature Breaking today to explain how it works is Isabelle Foster, WWF’s Senior Impact Investing Specialist. Isabelle is part of WWF Impact, our impact investing venture. And she’s also a podcast host, having recently launched a limited-series show called Catalyzing Climate Conversations. Her new show is a partnership with the Aspen Institute’s Aspen Network of Development Entrepreneurs (ANDE). Stay tuned to hear from Isabelle about how impact investing works, why WWF is investing in companies like EatCloud—whose software platform is helping grocery stores and other businesses divert food from the landfill and instead support local communities—and how these investments advance conservation outcomes on the ground. Links for More Info: Isabelle Foster bio: https://www.worldwildlife.org/about/profiles/isabelle-foster/ WWF Impact: https://www.worldwildlife.org/our-work/impact-investing/ PODCAST: Catalyzing Climate Conversations: https://andeglobal.org/catalyzing-conversations-a-podcast-by-ande-wwf-impact/ CHAPTERS: 0:00 Preview 0:30 Intro 1:56 What is impact investing? 5:20 How can impact investing help the planet? 8:02 WWF’s approach to impact investing 13:34 Example of success: EatCloud 21:45 Podcast plug for Catalyzing Climate Conversations 27:39 Outro #ImpactInvesting #ClimateSolutions #SustainableFinance #FoodSystems #RegenerativeAgriculture #FoodWaste #Aquaculture #NatureBasedSolutions #ClimateInnovation #WWF

Why is World Wildlife Fund concerned about property insurance? Because insurance markets are reaching a breaking point—and climate change and nature loss are two of the biggest forces behind it. Tune into this week’s episode of Nature Breaking to learn what a recent WWF report found about the growing “insurance protection gap,” and how investing in nature could help to close it.

Did you know that extreme weather disasters in the U.S. are now causing more than 20 billion‑dollar events every year, leaving a growing share of those losses uninsured? As climate change accelerates—and as ecosystems like wetlands and forests are destroyed and degraded—the insurance protection gap is widening, putting households, businesses, and entire communities at rising financial risk. In this episode of Nature Breaking, you’ll hear from David Kuhn, WWF’s Director for Adaptation and Resilience Partnerships and a contributor to a new WWF report on the insurance crisis. David explains what’s driving the surge in uninsured losses, why premiums are skyrocketing, and how climate‑driven disasters are undermining the stability of the US insurance system. He also breaks down how nature loss is stripping communities of their “first line of defense” against floods, storms, and heat—and why restoring ecosystems may be one of the most cost‑effective ways to strengthen resilience and shore up the insurance system. As David shares, there’s reason for hope in spite of these alarming trends. With smart policies, better risk modeling, and investments that treat nature as essential infrastructure, we can reduce damages, lower costs, and build a safer, more resilient future. David Kuhn bio: https://www.worldwildlife.org/about/profiles/david-kuhn/ REPORT: Tackling the Insurance Protection Gap: https://wwf.panda.org/discover/our_focus/climate_and_energy_practice/?14877466/Insurance-Protection-Gap-Policy-Brief Op-Ed: Nature is a powerful ally against fires and floods (LA Times): https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2026-02-04/nature-powerful-ally-fires-floods Chapters: 0:00 Teaser 0:31 Intro 1:56 Explaining the insurance protection gap 6:47 Insurance becoming an unsustainable business model 10:23 Practical impacts of insurance gap on consumers 15:23 Role of nature loss in the insurance crisis 19:16 How nature can help mitigate the insurance crisis 21:32 Recommendations for policymakers, insurers, companies, etc. 25:50 Reasons for hope 30:00 Outro

The winter sports season has just begun, and for some species, this is when their snowy skills truly shine.

We recently asked WWF staff from across the organization to reflect on the work highlights that made 2025 meaningful. WWF’s Madalen Howard shares her experience on visiting the sandhill crane migration in the Rio Grande Basin and its importance to freshwater ecosystems.

Whales roam the world's oceans, communicating with complex and mysterious sounds. Their sheer size never fails to amaze us. Did you know blue whales can reach over 100 feet long and weigh up to 200 tons? That’s as much as 33 elephants!

Did you know that 75% of the infrastructure the world will use in 2050 hasn’t been built yet? That means the choices we make today—about roads, bridges, railways, & more—will shape the future of both human development and the natural world. Tune into this week’s episode of Nature Breaking to learn how we can ensure that the infrastructure of tomorrow works for both nature and people.

Did you know that 75% of the infrastructure the world will use in 2050 hasn’t been built yet? That means the choices we make today—about roads, bridges, railways, ports, and power systems—will shape the future of both human development and the natural world. In this episode of Nature Breaking, WWF’s Ryan Bartlett, Director for Climate Resilience and Risk Management, explains how we can build the infrastructure we need without destroying the ecosystems we rely on for critical benefits, including resilience to worsening weather extremes. From habitat fragmentation to increased flooding, poorly planned infrastructure can unintentionally cause huge environmental and social problems. But with the right planning tools, safeguards, and nature-based solutions that treat nature as infrastructure, we can chart a very different path forward. Links for More Info: Ryan Bartlett bio: https://www.worldwildlife.org/about/profiles/ryan-bartlett/ WWF Sustainable Infrastructure page: https://www.worldwildlife.org/our-work/sustainability/infrastructure/ Sustainable Infrastructure Program in Asia: https://www.worldwildlife.org/our-work/sustainability/infrastructure/sustainable-infrastructure-program-in-asia/ Greening Transportation Infrastructure Development (GRID): https://gridip.org/ Chapters: 0:00 Preview 0:26 Intro 1:38 Challenges and opportunities with infrastructure development 4:37 Unintended consequences from poorly planned infrastructure 8:05 Best practices to balance infrastructure with nature & climate concerns 10:58 Solutions for infrastructure bisecting wildlife habitat 15:20 Asia as a key region for sustainable infrastructure 18:30 Sustainable Infrastructure Program in Asia (SIPA) 28:53 Lessons learned from SIPA 31:07 Greening Transportation Infrastructure Development (GRID) program 34:32 What does success look like for advancing sustainable infrastructure development? 37:39 Outro