Last week, World Wildlife Fund released the 2014 Living Planet Report. The report is always a must read update on the state of the planet, but this edition is especially important for anyone who cares about biodiversity. The top line message is that vertebrate populations around the world have declined by an average of 52% between 1970 and 2010.

The situation is even worse if we look at the tropics, with an 83% species decline in Latin America. These are sobering statistics for me, and I'm sure for you as well.

Why are we seeing these alarming trends? Simply put, they are a consequence of the growing demands of the human population. More people are clearing forests, plowing grasslands, polluting waters, and emptying the oceans.

This is not just a problem for wildlife. It's a problem for you and me, too. Instead of living sustainably within our ecological means, we are borrowing from our future to pay for our present. Every year we take more natural resources than we took the year before.

When my colleagues and I reflect on our conservation work, we see hope in WWF’s past accomplishments to protect the world’s most important places like the Amazon and iconic species. Just this past year, Nepal celebrated 365 days without a single poaching incident of tigers, rhinos or elephants. In fact, the country's tiger population increased by 63% between 2009 and 2013.

We have to accomplish much more in the future, especially with your help.

By making a donation to WWF today, you will help us take a stand to protect animals, their habitats and resources that we all need to survive. Even the smallest gift provides vital support we can count on every day.

I am most excited about three things that WWF is doing to start to reverse the current trends in animal populations.

First, we are looking at our conservation strategies with fresh eyes to ask how they might be scaled up to achieve larger conservation impact. The secret lies in developing strategies that can be implemented by others, effectively multiplying the impact that WWF could have by itself. To do that, we are using science to develop forecasts of how much conservation impact we think a project may have in order to identify the most promising strategies. And we are rigorously measuring the impacts of strategies so that we better understand the conditions under which they can be successfully replicated.

Second, we are focusing on community-based conservation strategies. WWF has been working in close collaboration with a number of communities in Namibia to develop their own conservation programs. The results have been a resurgence of rhinos, lions and other wildlife, and economic development opportunity for local people. Variations of this strategy are now being developed with communities all around the world, from Nepal, to the Arctic, and even with Native American communities in the Northern Great Plains of the US.

Finally, WWF is working with the private sector and with governments to help them incorporate natural capital considerations into their business and development decisions. In Belize, WWF scientists have helped government officials and stakeholder groups to develop a science-based coastal zone management plan that balances economic development with protection of vital natural capital such as coral reefs, sea grass beds and mangrove forests that attract tourists, sustain fisheries, and protect coastal towns and infrastructure.

These strategies give me hope in the face of these trends because they show the promise of what might be accomplished when conservation harnesses the creative potential of innovation and the multiplicative power of collaboration.

The future is still in our hands. We can make a huge difference if we all work together to protect the planet.

Will you make a monthly donation to support our global conservation efforts?

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