vision:

animals and people thriving together.

mission:

fresh thinking and bold action for animals, people, and the place we call home.

more complex problems, more fresh thinking solutions

Our human relationships with animals have taken center stage during a year that has presented some of the most significant cumulative challenges to human society in modern history, from a global pandemic to raging bush and wildfires across virtually every part of the globe. Viewing society’s struggles as separate from the plight of the world’s wildlife is a fundamental failure to understand the reality of living on this shared planet.

We face an unprecedented level of political upheaval and a civilization-wide call to address social justice issues. These issues are in no way independent of the challenges that affect the natural world. As we see time and again, the social injustice of environmental exploitation tends to disproportionately affect disadvantaged, vulnerable and marginalized groups already facing significant socio-economic challenges.

Time to define a path forward

A seemingly perfect storm has forced society to pause, reassess, and decide what role humankind will play in the grand scale of our relationship with nature. This inflection point is as critical on an organizational level as it is on an individual level. It has further strengthened the commitment made by IFAW over a half-century ago to ensure that animals and people thrive together.

Regardless of the physical, political, or even social challenges which evolve and persist without fail, IFAW's work continues to transcend borders and boundaries, proving that individual animals matter and ordinary people have the power to make a difference wherever they are.

Our interwoven world

The pandemic has demonstrated that the health of humanity and the natural environment are deeply interwoven. From combating illegal poaching in Africa to global efforts to fight wildlife cybercrime, to a commitment to rescue wildlife and ease the burden on people and animals during natural disasters, IFAW’s work is at the complex intersection of animal and human wellbeing.

Embracing large-scale solutions on behalf of industry, government, and the local community, IFAW’s programmatic work aims to put an end to short-term “band-aid” remedies and promote solutions that deliver over the long-term, for both communities and surrounding wildlife.

The commitment of IFAW’s dedicated teams in 15 different countries, across 40 separate project sites, epitomizes the organization’s role, together with local people around the world, as “stewards of the natural environment.” As stewards, IFAW teams recognize critical lessons taught by current times. The most crucial lesson as we long for our “old normal” is realizing that our “old normal” was not a very good place for nature, nor a hopeful future for humanity.

Tangible solutions

IFAW builds consensus and relationships that work. We invite others to share their voice at the collective table. Many are rightly concerned with issues ranging from decimated habitats and rapidly declining animal populations to staggering levels of illegal wildlife trade and the ever-escalating competition for limited resources.

These threats are as real as the tangible solutions that IFAW works to offer both in the field and behind the scenes. The pages of this annual report document IFAW’s extensive programmatic work to demonstrate how its impact is as effective as it is far-reaching, as inclusive as it is just.

We welcome you as part of this global journey to embrace a more hopeful future for us all.

Let’s get to work.