WORLD WILDLIFE FUND

For nearly four decades, World Wildlife Fund (WWF) has led international efforts to conserve the wealth of life on Earth. WWF is the US affiliate of the international WWF network, which has national organizations or representatives in more than 50 countries and works in more than 100 countries throughout the world. WWF is partner of the Ocean Alliance.

WWF's mission is the conservation of nature. The organization's work is driven by a passion for nature, grounded in science, and shaped by an understanding that addressing human needs is critical to successful long-term conservation. To meet this challenge, WWF employs methods that are as varied as the challenge demands - from creating and strengthening parks and protected areas to weaving conservation into the fabric of local economic development, from protecting endangered species to influencing global environmental policies.

WWF works with local communities and with business, governments, and global institutions to address the broad spectrum of threats to wildlife and their habitat. To date, WWF has supported more than 2,000 conservation programs in 116 countries.

Global 200

WWF's Living Planet Campaign calls on governments, institutions, businesses and people to take significant actions to help preserve the world's endangered spaces - places we call the Global 200; to protect endangered species; and to address the global threats that put all living things in harm's way.

The Global 200 are outstanding examples of the Earth's diverse terrestrial, freshwater, and marine habitats - areas where the Earth's biological wealth is most distinctive or rich, where its loss will be most severely felt, and where we must fight the hardest for conservation.

In the course of the Voyage of the Odyssey, the Odyssey will visit a number of the designated WWF Global 200 ecoregions. The Odyssey's trial voyage between August and November 1999 was conducted in the Gulf of California, one of the 61 marine regions included in the Global 200 project.

Upon leaving San Deigo in early 2000, the Odyssey's next port of call will be the Galapagos Islands - another a Global 200 ecoregion.

The Galapagos Islands are an isolated archipelago about 600 miles west of Ecuador. The islands are a relatively unspoiled ecological and evolutionary treasure trove, featuring a wide range of habitats and a unique range of plants and animals, most of which are found nowhere else on Earth.

Non native species threaten the survival of native Galapagos wildlife. They compete with native species for food, destroy essential habitat, and prey on the eggs and young of reptiles and birds.

Heavy demand for certain marine products, such as sea cucumbers and shark fins, has led to overfishing, which in turn has caused declines in marine populations that may take decades to reverse. Poaching and fires caused by human activity further threaten the native plants and creatures of Galapagos.

Click here for more information about the Global 200.

Toxics

Every ocean and sea, from the tropics to the polar regions, contains toxic man-made chemicals, produced on land. Even at extraordinarily low doses, some can have long-term damaging impacts on the immune and reproductive systems of wildlife and humans alike.

The oceans are the final "sink" for many synthetic chemicals that are used in the manufacture of consumer and industrial products such as pesticides and plastics. Because the currents and circulation patterns of the oceans know no boundaries, once deposited, many toxic chemicals are transported over long distances. Many of the world's marine species are at risk from toxics, especially marine mammals.

Of particular concern to the oceans are persistent organic pollutants (POPs), which degrade very slowly, and a family of over 120 compounds, including some POPS, known as endocrine disruptors, which interfere with hormones, altering sexual development, impairing reproduction, and undermining the immune system.

Policy work in the field of persistent organic pollutants is a key component of WWF's Global Toxics Initiative, which also concentrates on endocrine disruptors and agricultural pesticides. WWF is calling for a global research effort to eliminate 16 of the most dangerous POPs.

Click here for more information about Toxics.

Cetaceans

Endangered cetaceans - whales, dolphins and porpoises - require a conservation strategy of global dimensions, as the threats these species face are broad in scope and enormous in scale. WWF is working with scientists, governments, industry, and other non-government organizations secure a future for cetaceans.

Major threats to cetaceans include commercial whaling, entanglement in fishing gear, collisions with ships and marine pollution, which can cause developmental and immunological abnormalities in many species.

WWF has been instrumental in maintaining the international commercial whaling moratorium, shoring up marine protected areas and whale sanctuaries, tracking the effects of climate change and toxic contaminants on cetaceans and their environment, and promoting community investment in whale conservation through whale-watching ventures.

Click here for more information about Cetaceans.