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WWF Spain

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WWF España
Asociación para la Defensa de la Naturaleza
Formation30 July 1968
Legal statusVolunteer organization
PurposeConservation and protection of nature and the environment
HeadquartersGran Vía de San Francisco, 8D, 28005 Madrid
Membership
50,842 in 2019
Parent organization
World Wide Fund for Nature
Websitehttps://www.wwf.es/

WWF Spain (Spanish: WWF España) is the Spanish section of the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), which is one of the world's largest organizations dedicated to the conservation of nature, with headquarters in more than 100 countries. Its mission is to halt the environmental degradation of the planet and build a future in which humans live in harmony with nature, through the protection and conservation of biodiversity and the reduction of the ecological footprint.[1]

Beginnings

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The WWF was founded in 1961 with the main goal of raising funds and acting in the defense of endangered natural species around the world. One of the WWF's first and most ambitious goals was to buy land in Doñana to preserve the wild marshes from imminent industrialization.[2][3][4]

The Spanish section of WWF was created on 30 July 1968 under the name ADENA, which stands for Asociación para la Defensa de la Naturaleza.[note 1][5][6] Naturalist Félix Rodríguez de la Fuente was one of its founders and served as its vice president until his death in 1980.[7]

Félix Rodríguez de la Fuente photographed at an exhibition in Lasarte, 1955

Rodríguez de la Fuente fought for the creation of natural and national parks, the protection of endangered species—such as wolves,[8] the Eurasian griffon vulture, and the peregrine falcon.[9] Thanks to him, it was possible to save the Tablas de Daimiel wetlands from drying out, to prevent the construction of an urban development in the Albufera de València, and to enforce the legal protection of the Doñana and Cabrera parks.[10] Therefore, the creation of ADENA is closely linked to the creation of the Doñana National Park, one of the most biodiverse places in Europe.[11] The organization later joined the WWF network and became known as WWF/Adena. Since 2009, it has been known as WWF Spain.[12]

ADENA's way of working focuses on conservation projects on the ground and with local communities, seeking solutions to environmental problems, in contrast to the other major environmental organizations working in Spain, such as Greenpeace and Ecologists in Action, which work more on denunciation at a global and local scale, respectively.[13][14] WWF's global logo, the giant panda, has become an icon that the public identifies with nature conservation.[15]

The 1970s

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ADENA launched the first campaign for the conservation of amphibians in Spain and took part in campaigns against poisoning, for the protection of the wetlands of La Mancha, against illegal hunting, and other causes.[16] In 1973, it participated in the First Working Meeting of Wolf Specialists and of the First International Conference on Conservation of the Wolf held in Stockholm, Sweden.[17] In subsequent years, it created the Birds of Prey Refuge of Montejo de la Vega.[18][19] Moreover, in order to preserve the Mediterranean fauna, it launched a campaign in defense of the mountain ranges and forests of Extremadura and proposed the creation of the Tablas de Daimiel National Park.[20]

The 1980s

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In 1983, Adena launched the first issue of its magazine Panda,[21][22] and began taking part in projects to study the Iberian lynx[23] and the white stork, studying the ecology of many other animal species, and actively fighting for their conservation.[24][25] Furthermore, it created a database of plants endemic to the Spanish Mediterranean and launched the awareness campaign Salvemos las plantas que nos salvan a nosotros,[note 2][26] an unprecedented initiative for the conservation of forests. It also created the La Encantá [es] Botanical Micro-reserve [es] in Villarrobledo, Albacete;[27] launched environmental education activities; dealt a hard blow to the poaching of bears in Asturias;[28][29] continued to work for the protection of the Doñana National Park; and decried the construction of the Costa Doñana residential development.[30]

The 1990s

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WWF helped complete the list of natural areas to be included in the Natura 2000 network.[31]

The 21st century

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Honorary presidency

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In 2012, a controversy arose surrounding an elephant hunting safari in Botswana involving then King Juan Carlos I of Spain, who had been the honorary president of WWF Spain since its founding in 1968. The king had been going on these safaris since 2006, but the news came to light when the government announced harsh economic cuts for the Spanish people. On 21 July 2012, via a special assembly, the organization decided by 226 to 13 votes to remove the position of honorary president from its statutes.[32]

See also

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Notes

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  1. ^ English: Association for the Defense of Nature—not to be confused with Association for the Defense of Nature (ADN), which is a regional NGO working to protect and study nature in Andorra.
  2. ^ English: Let’s save the plants that save us

References

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  1. ^ "Quiénes somos: Conoce WWF España". WWF España (in Spanish). Retrieved 25 March 2024.
  2. ^ "Doñana, las raíces del panda". WWF España (in Spanish). Retrieved 26 March 2024.
  3. ^ Valladares 2018, p. 9.
  4. ^ Hoffmann, André (19 September 2016). "The legacy of Spain's Doñana national park belongs to all of us". El País. Retrieved 26 March 2024. In 1963, when I was just five years old, my father, a lifelong lover of birds and other nature, helped newly formed conservation organization WWF acquire a plot of land in southern Spain. This extraordinarily rich wetland, then known as the Coto de Doña Ana, was slated for drainage, which would have been catastrophic.
  5. ^ Jiménez-Sánchez 2007, p. 363.
  6. ^ Valladares 2018, p. 5.
  7. ^ "Félix Rodríguez de la Fuente". Real Academia de la Historia (in Spanish). Retrieved 26 March 2024.
  8. ^ "Jefe de una manada de lobos". ABC (in Spanish). 7 March 2010. Retrieved 26 March 2024.
  9. ^ Merino, Alfredo. "El jefe de todos los lobos y otros piratas de la fauna ibérica". El Mundo (in Spanish). Retrieved 26 March 2024.
  10. ^ Rico, Javier (13 March 2015). "Las huellas de Félix". El País (in Spanish). Retrieved 26 March 2024.
  11. ^ "Doñana National Park". UNESCO. Retrieved 26 March 2024.
  12. ^ "NGOFILE :: WWF España". Progressive Spain. Retrieved 26 March 2024.
  13. ^ "Quiénes somos - Cómo nos organizamos". Greenpeace España (in Spanish). Retrieved 26 March 2024.
  14. ^ "Sobre Ecologistas en Acción - FAQ - ¿Cómo se organiza Ecologistas en Acción?". Ecologistas en Acción (in Spanish). Retrieved 26 March 2024.
  15. ^ "WWF Panda Logo". World Wide Fund for Nature. Retrieved 26 March 2024.
  16. ^ "50.º Aniversario de WWF-ADENA, pioneros de la custodia del territorio en España". Plataforma Custodia del Territorio (in Spanish). 28 September 2018. Retrieved 26 March 2024.
  17. ^ Pimlott, Douglas H. "Proceedings of the First Working Meeting of Wolf Specialists and of the First International Conference on Conservation of the Wolf" (PDF). International Union for Conservation of Nature. Retrieved 26 March 2024.
  18. ^ "El Refugio de Montejo es un modelo pionero de conservación en España desde 1974". WWF España (in Spanish). Retrieved 26 March 2024.
  19. ^ Valladares 2018, p. 8.
  20. ^ Valladares 2018, p. 23.
  21. ^ "Revista Panda". WWF España (in Spanish). Retrieved 26 March 2024.
  22. ^ Espina Cillán, Jesús, ed. (January 1983). "Panda - Revista trimestral de ADENA" (PDF). Panda - Revista de ADENA (in Spanish). I (1): 16. Retrieved 26 March 2024.
  23. ^ Valladares 2018, p. 10.
  24. ^ "Diez años de conservación del Lince Ibérico (2012)". Junta de Andalucía (in Spanish). Retrieved 26 March 2024.
  25. ^ Gallego, José Luis (12 February 2023). "De la cigüeña blanca al oso pardo: las buenas noticias de la fauna española desde los años 80". El Confidencial (in Spanish). Retrieved 26 March 2024.
  26. ^ Valladares 2018, p. 11.
  27. ^ Gómez-Campo & Herranz-Sanz 1993.
  28. ^ "Salva al oso pardo". WWF España (in Spanish). Retrieved 26 March 2024.
  29. ^ Vega, Carla (5 August 2020). "Envenenados, con lazos o a tiros: así mueren los osos cantábricos". La Voz de Asturias (in Spanish). Retrieved 26 March 2024.
  30. ^ "100 intelectuales piden la paralización del proyecto Costa de Doñana". El País (in Spanish). 12 January 1990. Retrieved 26 March 2024.
  31. ^ Valladares 2018, p. 3.
  32. ^ "Spain king ousted as honorary president of World Wildlife Fund branch after elephant hunt". The Washington Post. Madrid. Associated Press. 21 July 2012. Archived from the original on 23 July 2012. Retrieved 26 March 2024.

Bibliography

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