Who Started the World Wildlife Fund

Knowing who started the World Wildlife Fund can help you understand the roots and message behind this environmental group that has made a difference in the world and will continue to do so.

The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) was started by Sir Julian Huxley, who at the time was a world-renowned biologist from England, and also the director of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). He had traveled to East Africa to check out the current conditions of the wildlife within the region, and was saddened by what he saw. He felt strongly enough to start an organization to remedy the issues currently facing nature, along with a handful of other Europeans. These included E.M. Nicholson, the director and general of the British Nature Conservancy, and Sir Peter Scott, the vice president of THE International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN).

Sir Julian Huxley was born on June 22, 1887. He is known for being a widely recognized humanist and internationalist, as well as an evolutionary biologist. He taught, spoke and researched the subject of natural selection and helped head up the idea of evolutionary synthesis. He went on to win many awards, including:

• Kalinga Prize in 1953
• Darwin Medal of the Royal Society in 1956
• Darwin-Wallace medal in 1958
• Special Award of the Lasker Foundation

His family lineage is one of greatness within the science world – many of his relatives were writers and biologists, and his grandfather was a personal friend of Darwin. As a teenager, Huxley attended the prestigious Eton college and went on to study at Oxford on a Zoology scholarship.

Huxley set up the Department of Biology at Rice University in Houston, and took his first exploratory trip of America that year (1912). He also studied in Germany in preparation of his new post. World War I brought varying experiences for Huxley, and he returned to England for a time to work with the British Army Intelligence Corp. He then returned to Oxford as a Fellow, and eventually went on to form the WWF that we know as such a strong proponent of environmental conservation projects today.

Personally, Julian Huxley had some challenges, including a couple of nervous breakdowns that landed him in the hospital where he was formally diagnosed as suffering from bipolar disorder. He also was known for his infidelity, something his wife, Juliette, was well aware of.

Sir Huxley passed away at the age of 87 in London, England. He continues to be credited as an influential contributor to science, especially in the areas of evolution, humanism and even eugenics, which has always been an extremely controversial topic and continues to be so.

Since Sir Julian Huxley was so outspoken and bold that it ironically made him the perfect candidate to help form the WWF. Under his guidance and leadership, the organization quickly became prolific, as they had a founding member able to get the job done and had no qualms about making waves in order to do so. He also was a passionate and emotional individual, and his attachment to many species of animals and natural life he discovered during his travels and research kept him focused on the goal of forming an organization that would not only rescue wildlife in peril, but help to protect and preserve every natural environment in the years to come.

Huxley and the other members who started the World Wildlife Fund left a memorable mark on the world of conservationism, and their positive repercussions are still felt today.

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