role of non governmental organization
1. The Environmental Foundation for Africa (EFA):
The Environmental Foundation for Africa (EFA) is a Sierra Leone non-governmental organization founded in 1992 that aims to protect and restore the environment in Africa. It has led environmental education and awareness raising campaigns, restored degraded lands and conserved pristine forests, minimized the impacts of civil war on the environment and its inhabitants, and equipped thousands of people with sustainable livelihood skills such as agro forestry.
Today EFA specializes is environmental awareness raising and capacity building at the national, regional and international levels using high impact communications tools and training programs to build an environmentally conscious society motivated to maintain the integrity of nature in Africa.
2. The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF):
The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) is an international non-governmental organization working on issues regarding the conservation, research and restoration of the environment, formerly named the World Wildlife Fund, which remains its official name in Canada and the United States.
It is the world’s largest independent conservation organization with over 5 million supporters worldwide, working in more than 90 countries, supporting around 1300 conservation and environmental projects around the world. It is a charity, with approximately 60% of its funding coming from voluntary donations by private individuals. 45% of the fund’s income comes from the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and the United States.
The group says its mission is “to halt and reverse the destruction of our environment”. Currently, much of its work focuses on the conservation of three biomes that contain most of the world’s biodiversity: forests, freshwater ecosystems, and oceans and coasts.
Among other issues, it is also concerned with endangered species, pollution and climate change. WWF’s current strategy for achieving its mission specifically focuses on restoring populations of 36 species (species or species groups that are important for their ecosystem or to people, including elephants, tunas, whales, dolphins and porpoises, and big-leaf mahogany), conserving 35 globally important eco-regions around the world (including the Arctic, the Amazon rainforest, the Congo Basin and the Coral Triangle), and reducing people’s ecological footprint in 6 areas (carbon emissions, cropland, grazing land, fishing, forestry and water).
The organization also works on a number of global issues driving biodiversity loss and unsustainable use of natural resources, including finance, business practices, laws, and consumption choices. Local offices also work on national or regional issues
3. Conservation International:
Conservation International (CI) is a non-profit organization headquartered in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area, which seeks to ensure the health of humanity by protecting Earth’s ecosystems and biodiversity. CI’s work focuses on six key initiatives that affect human well-being: climate, food security, freshwater security, health, cultural services and species contribution. The group is also known for its partnerships with local non-governmental organizations and indigenous peoples.
4. Greenpeace:
Greenpeace is a non-governmental environmental organization with offices in over 40 countries and with an international coordinating body in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Greenpeace states its goal is to “ensure the ability of the Earth to nurture life in all its diversity” and focuses its work on worldwide issues such as global warming, deforestation, over fishing, commercial whaling and anti-nuclear issues. Greenpeace uses direct action, lobbying and research to achieve its goals.
The global organization does not accept funding from governments, corporations or political parties, relying on more than 2.8 million individual supporters and foundation grants. Greenpeace is an independent global campaigning organization that acts to change attitudes and behaviour, to protect and conserve the environment and to promote peace by:
i. Catalysing an energy revolution to address the number one threat facing our planet: climate change.
ii. Defending our oceans by challenging wasteful and destructive fishing, and creating a global network of marine reserves.
iii. Protecting the world’s remaining ancient forests which are depended on by many animals, plants and people.
iv. Working for disarmament and peace by reducing dependence on finite resources and calling for the elimination of all nuclear weapons.
v. Creating a toxic free future with safer alternatives to hazardous chemicals in today’s products and manufacturing.
vi. Campaigning for sustainable agriculture by encouraging socially and ecologically responsible farming practices.
