The WWF is run at a local level by the following offices...
- WWF Global
- Adria
- Argentina
- Armenia
- AsiaPacific
- Australia
- Austria
- Azerbaijan
- Belgium
- Bhutan
- Bolivia
- Borneo
- Brazil
- Bulgaria
- Cambodia
- Cameroon
- Canada
- Caucasus
- Central African Republic
- Central America
- Central Asia
- Chile
- China
- Colombia
- Croatia
- Democratic Republic of the Congo
- Denmark
- Ecuador
- European Policy Office
- Finland
The finance and business sectors have disproportionate leverage to bring about change – both positive and negative. Over the past five years, we have seized every opportunity to steer these sectors towards a more sustainable path.
Our work to transform the private sector can broadly be grouped into three areas: efforts to “green the finance sector” (working with banks, insurers and asset managers to transition away from financing environmentally and socially harmful sectors); efforts to “finance green” (creating opportunities to finance green companies and projects); and efforts to encourage publicly listed South African companies to adopt global sustainability reporting standards.
We have progressively raised the finance sector’s awareness of the immense opportunities in the emerging green economy – and the risks inherent in continuing to invest in unsustainable activities.
As an example of our impact, we supported Nedbank – a longstanding WWF transformational partner – in developing a nature-positive position statement in which the bank acknowledged the role it can play in protecting, and ultimately restoring, nature through its lending and investment decisions. This was followed by a climate position, released in 2025, that is firmly anchored in a net zero philosophy. We look forward to continuing our close relationship with this green finance pioneer.
In 2019, WWF co-founded the Sustainable Finance Coalition to develop financial solutions for the conservation of high-biodiversity areas and threatened species. With WWF’s support, the Coalition has gone on to register as an independent nonprofit organisation. WWF remains involved with the Coalition through funding support.
WWF also started providing technical advice to the Development Bank of Southern Africa’s Climate Finance Facility and the Green Outcomes Fund to help drive investment towards sustainable projects that support South Africa’s green economic growth and that do not have hidden risks for people or nature. By investing in 14 green small, medium and microenterprises (SMMEs), the Green Outcomes Fund has supported the creation of nearly 950 direct and indirect jobs while producing clean energy, treating wastewater, and driving the circular economy.
WWF has long advocated for sustainability reporting as a mechanism to raise awareness of environmental and social risks in the financial and business sectors. In recent years, global sustainability standards have become more consolidated under International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), namely IFRS1 and IFRS2. We have intensified our advocacy, contributing to industry discussions with financial regulators, the JSE (Johannesburg Stock Exchange), national business bodies and national government to mainstream these standards.
In 2024, we conducted a survey to assess the financial sector’s readiness for the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD) framework – a reporting standard that has largely been integrated into IFRS1 and IFRS2. This survey confirmed that, although many financial institutions are aware of their direct and indirect impacts on nature, there remains an internal knowledge gap when it comes to effectively assessing and managing nature-related risks and impacts.
WWF’s Business Network includes several of South Africa’s most prominent financial institutions.
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of the country's top 20 asset managers |
of the 10 biggest banks in South Africa |
of South Africa’s top 10 insurers |
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Fairtree Asset Management and Remgro Management Services |
FirstRand, Investec Bank, Nedbank Group and Standard Bank Group |
Discovery Limited, Liberty Group, Momentum Metropolitan Holdings and Old Mutual |
Turning to Strategy 2030, WWF remains committed to supporting financial institutions as they embark on the journey and build internal capacity to integrate nature-positive thinking into their processes.