World Wildlife Fund - Annual Report 2007 - (Page 48)

All Along the Equator WWF is ensuring a future for forests as home to people and wildlife and as a buffer against the effects of climate change. Three of Earth’s largest remaining rain forests – in the Amazon, Congo Basin and Borneo – straddle the equator. They are all being deforested by land-use conversion for agriculture and unsustainable logging. And they are all priorities for WWF. For each one, we have brokered landmark conservation agreements. Most recently, we brought together the governments of Brunei Darussalam, Indonesia and Malaysia to protect the Heart of Borneo – a 55 million-acre forest covering a third of the island of Borneo. This result follows in the footsteps of the agreement among 10 Central African countries to save the Congo Basin rain forest and the development of Brazil’s Amazon Region Protected Area program, which will protect 123 million acres in an unrivaled system of parks and reserves. WWF’s global presence and the relationships we have built with government leaders make it possible for us to bring political entities together to protect the natural resources that they share. And as we face the threats of our changing climate, forest conservation takes on evergreater importance. Through photosynthesis, forests – especially rain forests – absorb and store carbon dioxide, the principal bad actor in global warming. Harvesting trees deprives us of that CO2 storage. On top of that, burning trees for fuel releases CO2 – as does disturbing soil for agriculture. So as the Earth loses its forest cover due to patterns of human consumption, we all lose our hedge against excessive climate change. That is why alleviating forest-carbon emissions is a key part of WWF’s new climate change strategy. “At one degree every thousand years, the natural planetary warming and cooling process seems quick in geological terms. But now we see degree changes occurring within as little as 25 years,” says George Powell, director for conservation science in Costa Rica and Peru. WWF scientists like Powell and his colleagues, Juan Carlos Riveros in Peru and Carlos Scaramuzza in Brazil, create computer models to envision what the future might look like. Our planners and field staff use these models to help design conservation actions that reduce the vulnerability of ecosystems to the impacts of climate change. Mitigating impacts of climate change on the one hand and reducing the forces of deforestation on the other, WWF is protecting not only wildlife and habitats, but the functioning of the planet itself. ■ ■ On the island of Borneo, WWF is saving the largest remaining contiguous forest in Southeast Asia, home to more than 3,000 types of trees and rare creatures like pygmy elephants, Sumatran rhinos and orangutans. 48 worldwildlife.org http://worldwildlife.org

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of World Wildlife Fund - Annual Report 2007

WWF - Annual Report 2007 Contents The Landscapes of People's Lives The President’s Report Africa, Land of the Soul Building Prosperity from Africa’s Natural Wealth A Namibian Odyssey Natural Capital: Putting a Price on Nature Investing in Fish and Fishermen Wildlife in the Balance Africans on the Move WWF Results Across the Globe A Different Kind of Fieldwork A River Dammed Pooling Efforts in the World’s Aquarium More Than Just the Daily Catch All Along the Equator A Partnership for Freshwater Funding and Financial Overview Statement of Activities Ways to Give Staff National Council Board of Directors

World Wildlife Fund - Annual Report 2007

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