World Wide Fund For Nature (WWF) is the world's largest and most experienced independent conservation organization, whose mission is to stop the degradation of the planet's natural environment and to build a future in which humans live in harmony with nature, by:

- conserving the world's biological diversity
- ensuring that the use of renewable natural resources is sustainable
- promoting the reduction of pollution and wasteful consumption.

WWF was founded in September 1961. The first National Appeal, the forerunner of today's WWF National Organizations, with HRH The Duke of Edinburgh as President, was launched in the United Kingdom on 23 November 1961. On 1 December, it was followed by the United States, and a few days later, Switzerland. Since then, WWF has grown considerably. National Appeals are now known as National Organizations, of which 27 are affiliated to WWF International. Each National Organization is a separate legal entity, responsible to its own Board and accountable to its donors. WWF International, as the secretariat for the global WWF Network, is accountable to the National Organizations (through the WWF International Board), donors, and the Swiss authorities. A majority of the members of the International Board are trustees of the National Organizations. WWF also has 24 Programme Offices throughout the world and five Associates, independent organizations which operate under a different name but which have adopted WWF's mission and guiding principles.

In its almost 40 years of work, WWF has carried out more than 11,000 conservation projects in 130 countries, and invested more than US$1,165 million. This activity has included the creation of dozens of parks and reserves all over the world, including the park of Doñana in southern Spain, a guarantee of survival for endangered and threatened animal and plant species such as the giant panda in China, elephants, tigers and turtles, and the myriad tree and plant species that form tropical rainforests. Today WWF focuses its conservation work on six priorities: forests, freshwater ecosystems, oceans and coasts, species of special conservation concern, toxic pollutants, and climate change. Increasingly WWF is focusing on the conservation of whole ecoregions, such as the Pantanal, the world's largest freshwater ecosystem, in South America. These biodiversity hotspots are known as the Global 200 Ecoregions which collectively contain the most important part of the world's remaining biodiversity.

WWF has also helped in the establishment of international conventions, such as CITES (the Convention on Trade in Endangered Species), the Convention on Wetlands (Ramsar, Iran 1971), and the Bonn Convention on the protection of migratory animal species.

His Royal Highness Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, who appears in the photograph, is President Emeritus of the World-Wide Fund for Nature.