This year WWF celebrates 50 years of achieving success in this beautiful and naturally abundant part of the planet.

The ‘panda footprint’ first broke ground in South Africa in 1968. Since then we have celebrated many key wins for all South Africans to be proud of. These wins would not have been possible without unwavering support - that includes yours. Thank you!

To celebrate our shared success, you can vote for WWF in the  MySchool MyVillage MyPlanet Vote4Charity campaign, giving a further boost to our critical work for nature and for you.

Here are some of the highlights.

In 2013, we realised a 20-year vision with the declaration of South Africa’s first offshore marine protected area: the Prince Edward Islands. Situated about 2 000 kilometres from our coast in the Southern Ocean, this spectacular marine reserve is home to the world’s largest sea bird, the albatross. It is also one of the largest marine reserves in the world.

There is great strength in unity and this has been proven time and again with WWF’s Earth Hour campaign. It first sparked in Sydney, in 2007. Since then hundreds of millions of people symbolically switch off their lights for 60 minutes in unity to take positive action for our planet.

The 90s were a time of great change and vision for our country. Inspired by this change, a new WWF-led trust was created to contribute to both social and environmental success. The WWF Nedbank Green Trust has been catalysing community-level conservation initiatives for 28 years.

As part of our work with commercial farmers, private landowners and communities living on shared land, we have empowered over 11 000 community members across 13 different biodiversity stewardship sites, helping them realise how nature looks after us if we look after nature.

WWF has been investing in the development of people since the 1990s. In 2011, we launched our Graduate Internship Programme to bridge the transition from university by providing a structured intern experience combined with mentorship and networking in the environmental sector.

We helped to catalyse a national job creation initiative in the mid-90s, Working for Water,  in areas where there is a high density of water-thirsty alien plants. Through this work, these areas have been cleared and helped to free up more of our natural water flow, contributing to water security in South Africa.

Since the 80s, WWF has been involved with conserving the iconic and endangered African rhino – both black and white. In 2003, with great foresight, far ahead of the rhino horn poaching crisis, we created a breeding and relocation project for the critically endangered black rhino. To date, 11 new groups of about 20 black rhino have been relocated and successfully established.

We hope you’re as proud of our shared conservation and environmental wins as we are. We look forward to many more years of working hand-in-hand to build a sustainable and equitable future. For Nature. For You.