For half a century, World Wildlife Fund (WWF) has worked to stop the degradation of the planet's natural environment and to build a future in which humans live in harmony with nature. Since 2007, The Coca-Cola Company and WWF have worked together to conserve the world’s freshwater resources. Our global partnership focuses on ensuring healthy, resilient freshwater basins in the Mesoamerican Reef catchments in Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, and Honduras, and the Yangtze River basin in China.
In Canada, Coca-Cola scaled up its support for nature in 2007 with a multi-year commitment to WWF’s Arctic conservation work through the global Arctic Home campaign. WWF worked to find long-term conservation solutions for the Last Ice Area (LIA), a region in the high Arctic where year-round sea ice is projected to last the longest. WWF implemented a polar bear-human conflict reduction program in Arviat, Nunavut to reduce the number of defense kills of polar bears in northern communities. They collaborate with residents of Arviat to develop non-fatal techniques for deterring or chasing polar bears away when they wander into the community in search of food. In this region the number of polar bears destroyed in defense of life or property has decreased from an average of eight per year before 2010 to an average of one per year since, despite an increasing frequency of encounters between people and polar bears. Coca-Cola’s support also helped WWF lead and establish the first-ever global action plan for the long-term protection of polar bears, as well as help support the Inuit-led initiative to designate Canada’s Lancaster Sound, at the southern point of the Last Ice Area, as a National Marine Conservation Area.
Coca-Cola and WWF will continue to champion conservation in Canada focusing on addressing key threats to freshwater. Coca-Cola and its employees actively participate in the Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup, helping reduce the threat of pollution to Canada’s aquatic ecosystems. In 2015, 567 employees from 23 facilities across Canada participated in the cleanups. Our partnership will support conservation projects as well as community engagement and action for freshwater health across the country.