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WILD Sápmi
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Summary
Organization name
The WILD Foundation
other names
WILD
1974
Category
Environment
Organization Size
Large Organization
Address
717 Poplar AveBoulder, CO 80304
Boulder County, CO, US
About
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The Next 30 Years Will Decide the Fate of Life on EarthThe planet is at a tipping point. In the next three decades, we must find a way to coexist with the 8 million other species that call Earth home—or we risk losing more than half to climate disruption and habitat collapse. The WILD Foundation exists to help humanity make the right choice: one where people and wild nature thrive together.
By giving to WILD, you help protect wilderness and stop extinction—not someday, but right now.
WILD Works at Every Level—From Global Policy to Remote ForestsFor over 40 years, WILD has been a global leader in conservation, working across sectors and borders to safeguard wild places and the communities that depend on them. Our work operates at three interconnected levels:
1. Uniting Global Action
We convene the World Wilderness Congress (WWC), the world’s longest-running and most effective platform for wilderness advocacy. WWC brings together Indigenous leaders, scientists, grassroots activists, and policymakers to build coalitions and shape conservation action at scale. Together, we transform shared knowledge into tangible protection.
We also represent wild nature in key international policy forums, including partnerships with IUCN and other global institutions. WILD champions the intrinsic value of wildness, advocating for bold frameworks to halt biodiversity loss and climate breakdown.
2. Local Projects With Global Impact
Our on-the-ground projects are co-created with local communities to meet both ecological and cultural needs:
Yawanawá, Brazil: In the heart of the Amazon, we partner with the Yawanawá people to protect critical rainforest habitat through an Indigenous-led ranger program, reinforcing Indigenous sovereignty while creating a buffer against deforestation.
Mali Elephant Project, West Africa: Elephants in Mali migrate through some of the harshest and most fragile landscapes on Earth. We work with local communities who see the elephants not as a threat, but as vital indicators of environmental health. By fostering local leadership, equitable governance, and sustainable livelihoods, communities are regenerating ecosystems and keeping elephants safe from poachers.
WILD Sápmi, Northern Europe: Our goal? Halting ALL deforestation in traditional Sámi lands by 2030. In partnership with Sámi leaders, this initiative defends the last wild places of Arctic Europe. It combines traditional ecological knowledge with modern conservation tools to protect nature and support Sámi self-determination in a rapidly changing climate.
3. Movement-Building for a Wilder Future
WILD doesn’t just protect wild places—we build the global movements that keep them safe:
Nature Needs Half: A groundbreaking vision and campaign that asserts nature needs at least half the planet left wild to support all life—including us. It’s a bold goal grounded in science and traditional wisdom, and it’s catching on: discover more at natureneedshalf.org.
CoalitionWILD: The future of conservation depends on the next generation. CoalitionWILD empowers young environmental leaders around the world by connecting them with mentors, resources, and networks. This youth-led program strengthens capacity, builds resilience, and ensures long-term conservation leadership.
When You Support WILD, You’re Part of Something Bigger. You’re not just donating to an organization—you’re joining a movement that honors the interdependence of people and wild nature. You’re helping protect forests, elephants, cultures, and ideas that keep the Earth alive.
Together, we can choose a future where wild places remain wild—and life in all its diversity continues to flourish.
Mission
Building strong communities that respect and protect nature for the benefit of all life.
Background Statement
WILD is the organization working in countries around the world to mobilize action to protect Half of Earth’s lands and seas - the amount scientists say we need to have a future. We began in South Africa almost 50 years ago as a friendship between a South African game ranger and his Zulu mentor. Despite the discrimination they faced during the apartheid regime, they worked together to do something that had never been done before: save a species - the Southern White Rhino - from the brink of extinction.
Their experience taught them that without widespread, global support, we could never reverse the accelerating destruction of wild nature. Thus, WILD was born. Today we work in West Africa and Brazil with on-the-ground conservation projects, but our primary mission is to create and mobilize the action needed to save life on Earth.
AN INVESTMENT IN NATURE WITH WILD MEANS:
• We work with over 50 local communities in West Africa to ensure that they have the resources they need to manage their lands for the benefit of people and North Africa’s last remaining herd of desert elephants.
• Indigenous Peoples are some of the best stewards of Earth’s lands and seas. This is why we have partnered with the Yawanawá People to defend 200,000 hectares of rainforest (which sequesters carbon equivalent to the annual emissions of 10 million cars) and restore additional lands belonging to the Yawanawá in the Western Amazon.
• We are mobilizing action to protect Half of Earth’s lands and seas. We established the first formal global policy recognition of the scientific consensus that keeping at least Half of Earth’s ecology intact is necessary to halt climate change and the loss of biodiversity.
• We are mobilizing decision-makers to utilize rewilding as a strategy for climate mitigations, especially the restoration of threatened species that help increase carbon uptake by 2-12x!
• CoalitionWILD, WILD’s young professional program, is empowering young people around the world in the areas they are needed most to take action for nature.
• The establishment of the World Wilderness Congress in 1977, the longest-running public international conservation project and environmental forum. Our most recent World Wilderness Congress, in August of 2024, brought together 700+ delegates from approximately 40 countries. We adopted the He Sápa Declaration, signed by dozens of endorsers, which promotes a common understanding of the sometimes contentious wilderness concept. We also adopted resolutions calling for a halt to all mining in the sacred Black Hills and a halt to all old-growth deforestation in Sápmi in addition to several others. Indigenous delegates signed the Honoring Grandmother Earth Indigenous Peoples Open Treaty, committing to protecting their traditional lifeways in order to honor and defend the Earth. Non-Indigenous delegates signed as witnesses to the treaty.
WILD's success is due in large part to its commitment to the power of synergy. Recognizing that most ecological problems are too big to be solved by just one actor, WILD leverages partnerships with stakeholder groups that include: government at all levels, public and private entities, local and international communities, commercial and nonprofit organizations, and scientific and artistic associations. By mobilizing every sector of society, WILD works outside its own organizational boundaries and pierces the social and political silos that inhibit collaborative problem solving and collective action.
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Organization Data
Boulder, CO 80304