The CARE-WWF Alliance
Nature cannot thrive without people, and people cannot thrive without nature. The CARE–WWF Alliance was built on this simple truth.
Founded in 2008, the Alliance brings together two of the world’s most trusted organizations — CARE’s 75 years of community-centered development work and WWF’s 60 years of conservation expertise — to address a fundamental truth: lasting progress for people and nature depends on each other. When ecosystems degrade, the communities most intimately connected to the land suffer first. And when communities lack the resources, rights, and opportunities to thrive, nature cannot be protected for long.
The Alliance centers the leadership of Indigenous peoples, women, and local communities — those who hold the deepest knowledge of the landscapes they steward, and who have the most at stake in protecting them. Our work spans nature-based solutions, sustainable livelihoods, landscape restoration, food and water security, land rights, and climate resilience — always rooted in local realities and driven by local people.
Our flagship initiative, Sowing Change, brings this vision to life. A livelihood-to-leadership program that has launched in Kenya, Colombia, and Zambia, Sowing Change invests in Indigenous and local women to develop nature-based enterprises, restore degraded landscapes, and become the climate leaders their communities need. In just its first year, more than 5,500 women and youth participated in climate leadership training in Kenya alone, while communities mapped 470 hectares for restoration and launched savings and enterprise programs that are already generating income and rebuilding ecosystems.
The Alliance also fuels innovation beyond our direct programs — serving as a trusted thought partner and catalyst across global initiatives including the Coral Reef Rescue Initiative, the Blue Heart of Africa, and the Accelerating Coastal Community-led Conservation Initiative.
We are charting a new path forward — one where communities and ecosystems don’t just survive, but thrive together.
Sowing Change is the Alliance’s livelihood-to-leadership initiative in which women lead their communities to identify local solutions to climate-induced challenges. As the water gatherers, food producers, and stewards of natural resources, women have intimate insight into the real effects of our changing climate.
Click on the countries below to learn more about the Alliance’s work:
Kenya
Sowing Change is a livelihood-to-leadership program from the CARE-WWF Alliance that helps women identify and lead solutions to climate-induced challenges in Kenya’s Amboseli landscape. As part of the program, women are connected to the resources and information they need to develop nature-based livelihoods—such as agroforestry and native species nurseries—that will increase economic, ecological, and climate resilience for their communities. With training and collaboration, participants are restoring the landscape while building a sustainable business that supports entire communities.
Tanzania: Nachingwea and SAGCOT
In partnership with local governments in Tanzania, the CARE-WWF Alliance is strengthening a community-run wildlife management area and supporting participatory forest management. Near one of Africa’s largest and most threatened reserves, the Selous, Nachingwea’s miombo forest is part of a critical woodland network that supports some of the continent’s largest elephant populations. It is also home to people who depend on the forest and its resources for food, shelter, and income. That’s why the Alliance has supported village natural resource committees to develop plans for sustainable timber harvesting and trained members to implement it. Income from sustainable harvesting are then split between natural resource management and community-prioritized development initiatives.
The Alliance has four goals in Tanzania: (1) community-based conservation organizations demonstrate more equitable access to and sustainable management of miombo forest; (2) poor women smallholder farmers adopt climate-smart agriculture practices on their farms; (3) rural poor engage in diversified, sustainable livelihood activities; and (4) majority of citizens, especially women, demonstrate greater ability to hold duty bearers accountable for decisions that affect ecosystems.
Mozambique: Primeiras e Segundas
Teeming with life, the Primeiras e Segundas archipelago in the north of Mozambique is at the center of one of Africa’s most biodiverse ecosystems. Yet climate change and over-exploitation of fish and mangroves are putting extreme pressure on the coastal region and its people. To help local communities address these challenges and conserve their extensive mangroves, coral reefs and seagrass beds, the CARE-WWF Alliance began working in 2008 with local men and women, farmers, fishers, community leaders and policymakers.
Primeiras e Segundas
Program Brief
In Mozambique, after years of advocacy by the Alliance, the government declared Primeiras e Segundas a protected area in 2012. Informed by the Alliance’s work there, the government developed a management plan that zoned both fully protected marine and terrestrial reserves as well as community conservation and sustainable use areas to maximize the protected area’s ability to deliver both conservation and development objectives. In that region, 65 community-based natural resource management committees are empowering their communities to adopt sustainable natural resource management and fishing practices.
Nepal: Hariyo Ban
In Nepal, CARE and WWF work with local partners in the Hariyo Ban program to conserve forest and tigers and accelerate ecological and community resilience to climate change by empowering vulnerable women and communities, improving natural resource management, and reducing threats to biodiversity.
Hariyo Ban Program Brief
The Hariyo Ban Program is named after the famous Nepali saying ‘Hariyo Ban Nepal ko Dhan’ (Healthy green forests are the wealth of Nepal). The first phase of the Hariyo Ban Program ended on 31 December 2016 and the second phase will run until 2021. The second phase will build on the foundation of Phase I, applying lessons learned and scaling up promising approaches.
The program aims to reduce the adverse impacts of climate change and threats to biodiversity in Nepal. It emphasizes the links between people and forests and is designed to benefit nature and people in Nepal. At the heart of Hariyo Ban lie two interwoven components – biodiversity conservation and climate change adaptation including market based livelihoods. These are supported by governance, and gender and social inclusion as cross-cutting themes.