Global Alliance

Wilderness Foundation Africa is an African-based conservation NGO that protects and sustains landscapes through its agile and innovative approach to conservation.

The WILD Foundation (Americas) respects and protects wild nature through best-practice action in the field; state-of-the-art media, policy, and science; traditional knowledge; and an ethic of ‘right relationship’ with people between people and nature.

Wilderness Foundation (UK) believes in the irreplaceable value, benefits, and beauty of wilderness, and the unique way in which the experience of wilderness can give us a sense of both our origins and our place in modern society.

Steeped in a rich environmental history, The Wilderness Leadership School was founded in 1957 by the legendary Dr Ian Player who, together with his friend and mentor Magqubu Ntombela, recognised the necessity for people to connect with the environment.

Our Vision

Protecting wild nature while meeting the needs of human communities – for the good of all life on Earth

Global Impact

World Wilderness Congress

The World Wilderness Congress, established in 1977, convenes every four years in a global, public process that produces practical and inspiring conservation results through the collaboration of diverse leaders and experts of all ages in science, policy, business, media & communications, traditional communities and lifeways, the arts & humanities, and civil society.

Wilderness Conservation Fund

The Wilderness Conservation Fund expands protected areas and their effective management by the private and public sectors, and by local communities. Special emphasis is given to the establishment of new wilderness protected areas and ecological corridors in global biodiversity hotspots and areas of community and cultural significance.

Wilderness Specialist Group

The Wilderness Specialist Group of the World Commission on Protected Areas (IUCN) assures the best global wilderness policy and legislation that systemically address the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, safeguards the irreplaceable life support services of wild nature, and provides direct cultural and social benefits to human communities

Welcome to

Wilderness Foundation Global

Wilderness Foundation Global (WFG) is an international alliance of action-oriented, like-minded organizations who understand that wilderness areas have local meaning and global significance, with direct importance to human well-being and inspiration. Founding members are Wilderness Foundation Africa, Wilderness Foundation UK, and the WILD Foundation (USA), with the Wilderness Leadership School (KwaZulu Natal, South Africa) as a patron partner. We have three main areas of global impact that we founded and directly facilitate:

The World Wilderness Congress
The Wilderness Conservation Fund
The Wilderness Specialist Group of the World Commission on Protected Areas (IUCN)

WFG is also a founding member of and an active proponent for Nature Needs Half, a science-based, culturally relevant, open-structure public movement to protect and interconnect at last half of the earth’s lands and seas for the well-being of all life.