Who founded the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF)? – The world’s largest environmental organization

Who founded the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF)? – The world’s largest environmental organization

WWF, which we all remember easily with its panda logo, is among the non-governmental organizations that are unrivaled worldwide in their efforts to protect natural life and take endangered animals under protection. In fact, it has similarities with Greenpeace and many similar organizations. For example, protecting and supervising the environment, being based on volunteerism, and generally seeing its young people working on the shores together… 🙂

So; unlike technology and civilization; when and by whom was the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) founded, which aims to protect nature by developing friendly relations with it, and for modern humans to live in peace and respect with nature and other living creatures? Where and how did it start its activities? Here is a short story of it:

Who is the founder of WWF?

The organization we translate as “Dünya Doğayı Koruma Vakfı” is actually of foreign origin and has a foreign name: World Wide Fund for Nature.. The name of the community, which has a meaning like “Küresel Doğa Fonu” when you translate it, started to be used as “Dünya Doğayı Koruma Vakfı” in Turkish.

In its foundation, we see a structure formed by the merger of different communities working to increase environmental awareness. If we go to the roots of the movements; the activities that prepared the ground for the establishment of WWF date back to the 1950s. In these years, a group of environmentalists in New York City and various cities of America emphasized that nature could be protected in harmony with capitalism and the system, and that we do not have to abandon nature for development and technology, and they engaged in some manifesto-style works. This community, which continued its work by adding scientists from many different branches to its staff for 10 years, formed the intellectual infrastructure for future major works.

As the 1960s began, the periods when WWF appeared on the world stage started. Namely; unlike the works mentioned above, WWF was founded in 1961 and made a rapid entry in terms of public opinion formation efforts regarding environmental awareness. The aforementioned community operating in America was in constant contact with WWF to provide intercontinental cooperation and to create coordination among environmentalists regardless of which non-governmental organization they were from, and finally joined it completely in 1980.

After the details of the foundation story, to state the inner side of the matter, the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) was founded in 1961 in Gland, Switzerland. The founding team of WWF is as follows:

Bernhard Prince Philip Julian Huxley Max Nicholson Peter Scott Guy Mountfort Godfrey A. Rockefeller

WWF after 1980

WWF, which existed at the beginning with only a group of volunteers concerned about protecting the environment and natural life, has shown an incredible acceleration since 1980, excluding the foundation and staffing periods, and has expanded its field of activity to almost the entire world. Of course, the share of citizens of different countries who share the same thoughts with WWF and are volunteers is greater in this.

Thanks to its diligence in finding intense funding and continuing its public opinion efforts without ceasing, WWF today has more than 2000 conservation projects and nearly 5000 employees. With this wide network, it is known as the world’s largest environmental organization.

About the Panda logo

The panda bear used in the logo of WWF, whose slogan is “for a living world”, is related to a study the association did during its foundation: The panda ‘Chi Chi’, which was transferred from a zoo in China to the London Zoo, was chosen as the logo of WWF because it is a beautiful memory and contains messages for a better future in touch with nature.