2014 with WWF

One place we knew we needed to act urgently to avoid potentially devastating impacts was Virunga National Park in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

Well, last year we heard UK-based oil company Soco International was planning to explore for oil in this UNESCO World Heritage Site – Africa’s oldest national park and a treasured place that’s home to a quarter of the world’s remaining critically-endangered mountain gorillas.

Some places are just too precious to be exploited in this way, and we think Virunga is one of them.

Thousands of families in the eastern part of the DRC depend on Virunga – and Lake Edward, where the testing for oil was due to take place – for their livelihoods and food, too.

So,during the year, we launched a campaign calling on Soco to halt their plans to drill for oil in the park.

Thanks to the support of more than 765,000 people from across the world who signed our petition, we've already achieved a great outcome: we've convincing Soco to end its exploratory operations in Virunga. Soco also committed, in June, not to drill in Virunga unless the DRC Government and UNESCO (the UN agency with responsibility for World Heritage sites) agree that this would not be incompatible with World Heritage status – UNESCO have consistently maintained, for more than a decade, that oil exploration is ‘fundamentally incompatible’ with World Heritage status.

We believe that this outcome removed the most immediate threat of oil exploration from the park.

But we still need your help to keep this incredible place safe for good. With oil exploration permits still overlapping 85% of the park, we now need the DRC government to cancel all of these permits and to declare Virunga a ‘no-go’ area for oil and other destructive industries.

Soco's commitment to withdraw from Virunga is a victory for the people that depend directly on the park’s resources and a triumph for everyone who values the rare plants, animals and habitats the park was set up to protect.

Whilst we have received several assurances that the company have dismantled their operations, we continue to monitor the situation in the park. With the development of hydropower, sustainable fisheries and ecotourism industries, Virunga can have a prosperous and sustainable future.

Thank you for your support – and please join us in protecting more places like Virunga.

This year we stepped up a gear in our approach to climate change. And you were there every step of the way.

WWF - as part of the larger Climate Coalition - helped launch the 'For the love of…' campaign.

It focuses on the many things about your life that’ll be affected unless we tackle climate change.

Our coalition brings together over 100 organisations and 11 million people, including environment and development charities, unions, faith and belief, community and women’s groups.

So far thousands of you have signed up and told us what you love. Your passions include British summertime, bees, grandchildren, snowboarding and London.

We've also invited you to let us know exactly why you care. Here’s an example of the personal and passionate responses we’ve had. They provide an amazing insight into what climate change will affect:

Now is the time to act

Unless politicians know climate change is something we all care about, they won’t have the mandate to act.

This is the time for everyone to make their voices heard – to show our politicians that we do care, that this issue is really important to us. Because it affects the things we love most. Our children’s future. Our hobbies. Our passions. Our lifestyles. Our safety and wellbeing. We’re calling for action to tackle climate change, for the love of everything we hold dear!

On Sunday 21 September, hundreds of thousands of people took part in the world’s biggest climate demonstration to put pressure on world leaders ahead of the UN climate summit.

From London to Santiago, and Paris to Nairobi, more than half a million people across the world took part in a global climate march to tell world leaders attending the climate summit that it’s time to take climate change seriously.

We aim to keep up international momentum around tackling the climate crisis in the run-up to a global deal being agreed in Paris in 2015.

Not only did this march send a loud and clear signal to politicians that they must take urgent action, it also demonstrated that together we can protect our planet and the things we love.

We have a long and important road ahead of us, but with the fantastic turnout for the marches, we know we’re not in this fight alone.

Thank you to everyone who showed their support and helped us make history!

Now you've marched tell us why you care about climate change.

For nearly two decades, our Living Planet Report has monitored the health of our planet.

This year we released the 10th edition of our flagship report. It demonstrated the urgent need for a united global effort to reduce our impact on the world.

It’s produced in collaboration with the Zoological Society of London, the Water Footprint Network and the Global Footprint Network.

The report tracks thousands of species populations and measures how the way we all live our lives is affecting our environment.

Its findings reveal that:
- Wildlife populations worldwide have declined by 52% since 1970
- We’re living as though we have more than one planet at our disposal
- By taking more than nature can replenish, we’re jeopardising our own future

We’re cutting down trees more quickly than they can regrow. We’re harvesting more fish than the oceans can restock. We’re pumping water from our rivers and aquifers faster than rainfall can replenish them. And we’re emitting more carbon than the oceans and forests can absorb.

We need a healthy planet for a stable future. This means we need to consume more wisely and produce less wastefully, to harness clean energy, to manage the world’s resources better and to halt the loss of our key habitats and species.
We've been working with partners around the globe to help us all start living within the natural limits of our planet.

We're working with a wide range of businesses, to help them minimise the impact of their industry. We’re also pushing world leaders to commit to a global agreement to tackle climate change, to create better policies to improve social development and to make stronger commitments to protect our planet’s most threatened places and species.

You can help, too. We can all make better choices about how we live and consume as individuals.

You might have noticed that things have got a little 'flippery' the closer we've got to Christmas.

2014 truly became the year of the penguin, owing - in no small part - to our partnership with John Lewis and its famous penguin: Monty!

We came together with John Lewis over Christmas time to raise awareness and funds for the work we’re doing in Antarctica to help protect the home of the Adélie penguin.

John Lewis wanted to highlight the challenges facing the Adélie penguin and its habitat by supporting our work in Antarctic. The Adélie penguin was core to both the John Lewis Christmas campaign and our Christmas appeal.

Their ad campaign helped us draw attention to the vital work we're doing in the Antarctic. As a result, we enjoyed a dramatic increase in penguin adoptions over November and December. The funds from these adoptions help us to safeguard the home of these iconic species.

In the lead up to Christmas we invited you all to take part in a #PenguinDanceBattle – and to film it, share it, and challenge your friends to do their own. It’s all helping to raise awareness of the daily battle penguins face for survival.

How do you dance like a penguin? It's simple – there are only two rules:
1. Be as cool as ice
2. Dance like a penguin

A selection of the best so far.

The Antarctic is one of the largest remaining wildernesses on the planet. Wild animals are free to roam. But it's under threat from climate change and commercial fishing!

We also kept things polar in the lead up to the festive period with the launch of our Ends of the Earth appeal.
We’re working to show how climate change is putting the animals that inhabit both the Arctic and Antarctica in danger.

It's not too late to give to the campaign - donate today.