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Articles Cheat Sheet

Tools

Getting News on the Homepage:

http://wwf.panda.org/

You must have article permissions for the theme “Homepage”. If you are an administrator, you can set your own and other users permissions. To change user permissions, go to Administration from the CMS navigation on the left, search by name, and click on edit. Then go to “article permissions” tab to see where the user is currently able to post. If needed, assign the correct themes to the user and save.

When creating the news piece:

  • set article type to “News”
  • set theme/category to “Home page”

When all these requirements are OK, the news piece should appear on the homepage within 1-5 minutes.

If the news item does not appear (on live site or in the cms), open it in the cms, go to “Theme” tab, and check if next to the checked theme it says “approved” or “waiting”. If it says “waiting”, the user has no permissions to post under this theme (see point 1).

Getting News on the “Conservation & Stories” page:

http://wwf.panda.org/wwf_news/

  • set article type to “News” or “Successes”
  • set theme/category to “Press Office”

(if it doesn’t show up, check your user permissions, see point 1 on top of this doc)

Getting Publications on the “Publications & Resources” page:

http://wwf.panda.org/about_our_earth/all_publications/

  • set article type to anything within “Publication”
  • several themes can be selected in order to make it show up on this page

(if it doesn’t show up, check your user permissions, see point 1 on top of this doc)

Getting Press Releases on the “Media & Resources for Journalists” page:

http://wwf.panda.org/wwf_news/press_releases/

  • set article type to “Press Release”
  • set theme/category to “Press Office”

(if it doesn’t show up, check your user permissions, see point 1 on top of this doc)

Getting Stories on the “Conservation Success Stories” page:

http://wwf.panda.org/what_we_do/successes/

  • set article type to “News” or “Successes”
  • set theme/category to “SUCCESS!”

(if it doesn’t show up, check your user permissions, see point 1 on top of this doc)

Getting Job postings on the “Jobs” page:

http://wwf.panda.org/who_we_are/jobs/

  • set article type to “Job”
  • set theme/category to “Jobs” or “Volunteer Appointments”

(if it doesn’t show up, check your user permissions, see point 1 on top of this doc)

Firefox Add-on

Tools

This addon adds a rhino-shaped button on the bottom right of the Firefox browser bar, which lets you click on it while you are visiting the live WWF website (frontend), taking you to the same page or news piece in the CMS (backend). This will save you time and efforts as you would not have to go into the CMS and browse through the site structure to find the right page to edit.

This addon works for all sites on the Network CMS panda.org including subsites, and netsites hosted by WWF International.
Find a list of all the supported Pads and URLs here.

See instructions for: Mac / PC

Steps to install on a Mac

1. Click here to download the Firefox addon. Select to Open the addon using Firefox. Click on the “Choose” button to select Firefox from your Applications.

2. The browser will open and notify you about the addon to be installed. Click on “Install now” button.

3. The browser has to restart in order to activate the addon. Click on “Restart now”.

4. Once restarted, go to the browser settings: Tools -> Add-ons and make sure you are under the Extensions tab.
Next to the Rhino plugin click on the “Preferences” button.

5. The option “autorun” should be inactive.
At the “Adress to WCMS” field, type in the complete URL to your pad. If it is pad.panda.org CMS, type in “https://pad.panda.org”. If it is Italy CMS, type in “https://pad.wwfit.panda.org”, etc. Find a list of all the supported Pads and URLs here.

That’s it! Now let’s test if it works…

6. Go to the live site, open any page or an article, and click on the Rhino button on the lower right of your browser window.
Please note: If you don’t see the Rhino addon icon, your browser addons toolbar is probably deactivated. Go to View -> Toolbars -> and check “extensions toolbar” or “addons toolbar”.

7. A new tab will open the same page or article in the CMS. The same should work if you do it on a page. Enjoy!


Steps to install on a PC (Windows)

1. Click here to download the Firefox addon. Select to Open the addon using Firefox. Click on the “Search” button to select Firefox from your application folders.

2. If Firefox does not appear in the first list of suggested applications, choose “Search” button to select it manually. Otherwise, select Firefox, click “Accept” or “OK” and skip the next step.
3. Browse through your application folders and select the Firefox executable file. It is most probably under the folder Program Files -> Mozilla Firefox. When found, select it and click on the “Open” button.
4. Now the first window should appear again, this time having Firefox selected as the option to open it with. Click on “Accept” or “Ok”
5. The browser will now prompt you about the addon to be installed to Firefox. Click on “Install now” to proceed.

6. The browser has to restart in order to activate the addon. Click on “Restart now”.

7. Once restarted, go to the browser settings: Tools -> Add-ons (or Extensions) and make sure you are under the Extensions tab.
Next to the Rhino plugin click on the “Preferences” or “Options” button.
8. The option “autorun” should be inactive.
At the “Adress to WCMS” field, type in the complete URL to your pad. If it is pad.panda.org CMS, type in “https://pad.panda.org”. If it is Italy CMS, type in “https://pad.wwfit.panda.org”, etc. Find a list of all the supported Pads and URLs here.
Click OK or “Accept”.

That’s it! Now let’s test if it works…

9. Go to the live site, open any page or an article, and click on the Rhino button on the lower right of your browser window.

Please note: If you don’t see the Rhino addon icon, your browser addons toolbar is probably deactivated. Go to View -> Toolbars -> and check “extensions toolbar” or “addons toolbar”.

10. A new tab will open the same page or article in the CMS. The same should work if you do it on a page. Enjoy!

See instructions for: Mac / PC


The complete list of pads that are supported:

Global website and subsites – https://pad.panda.org

Argentina: https://pad.wwfar.panda.org
Australia: https://pad.wwfau.panda.org
Brazil: https://pad.wwf.org.br
Canada: https://pad.wwf.ca
China: https://pad.wwfcn.panda.org
Denmark: https://pad.wwfdk.panda.org
France – https://pad.wwffr.panda.org
Greece: https://pad.wwfgr.panda.org
Hong-Kong: https://pad.wwfhk.panda.org
India: https://pad.wwfindia.org
Indonesia: https://pad.wwfid.panda.org
Italy – https://pad.wwfit.panda.org
Malaysia: https://pad.wwfmy.panda.org
Mozambique: https://pad.wwfmz.panda.org
New Zealand: https://pad.wwfnz.panda.org
Norway: https://pad.wwf.no
Poland: https://pad.wwfpl.panda.org
South Africa: https://pad.wwfza.panda.org
Spain: https://pad.wwf.es
Turkey: https://pad.wwftr.panda.org

Did we forget any? Let us know.

See instructions for: Mac / PC

Life on ice should not lead to decisions on ice

General,

Bearded seal on ice, Spitsbergen, Norway © Wim van Passel / WWF-Canon

Bearded seal on ice, Spitsbergen, Norway
© Wim van Passel / WWF-Canon


Anybody can make choices when they have all of the information, especially if all of the information leads to one inescapable conclusion. It’s a lot harder to make choices when you only have part of the information, and must wait many years to see if the information was exactly correct. That is the position that faces policy makers now in the Arctic, as they make choices based on the disappearing sea ice.
We know the ice is shrinking – that has been clearly demonstrated by satellite monitoring over the past few years. We do not know exactly what that means for Arctic life.  A new report from the Arctic Council lays out what we know and what we don’t know about the effects of the ice shrinkage. “Life Linked to Ice” talks about the direct and indirect changes that Arctic species face as the ice shrinks. For species such as polar bears, it is clear that their preferred hunting grounds will be less available. Other effects are not so easily visible, but may be just as drastic. The change in light and temperature with the loss of sea ice encourages different species of the smallest life in the ocean. As those species change, the species that feed on them may change, affecting the whole system.
As the report concludes, “To what extent Arctic species will adjust to these changes is uncertain. Changes are too rapid for evolutionary adaptation, so species with inborn capacity to adjust their physiology or behavior will fare better. Species with limited distributions, specialized feeding or breeding requirements, and/or high reliance on sea ice for part of their life cycle are particularly vulnerable.”
Despite the uncertainty, there are choices that could or should be made. As WWF points out in the report, waiting until we know as much as we’d like may be too late for any effective actions to be taken. This is particularly true of managing areas for conservation. Creating a park or other protected area can take decades. Arctic governments and peoples need to immediately take a close look at this report and its recommendations. There is one recommendation that is not in the report, but should be, and it’s simple: act now.

As businesses move north, is the Arctic Council keeping pace with environmental stewardship?

General, ,

Minister Leona Aglukkaq spoke at the dinner for delegates held 21 October at the Kwanlin Dun Cultural Centre. © Arctic Council Secretariat

Canadian Environment Minister Leona Aglukkaq speaks before Arctic Council delegates, October 21 2013. © Arctic Council Secretariat


Climate change and sea ice receding present new opportunities for mining, oil exploration and transportation in the Arctic. Climate change is affecting the circumpolar Arctic twice as fast as regions located in lower latitudes, bringing Arctic development to the forefront of the agenda as Canada begins its second chairmanship of the Arctic Council.
Arctic states are planning to bolster development and exploitation of the region by embracing an opportunistic development approach. The Arctic Council is transforming from a body concerned with environmental protection and sustainable development to one with a clear mandate to enhance economic cooperation. Last week’s Throne Speech from the Canadian government also emphasized the development of the Canadian North, with hardly a mention of conservation.
WWF supports the well-being of the Arctic’s indigenous communities,and development is necessary to create prosperity for the north. But when global warming is melting sea ice across the region, leading to increased Arctic accessibility, it is important to recall the Council’s original mandate of environmental protection and sustainable development. WWF is concerned by the recent narrowing of the Council’s sustainability remit to just one of its domains, the economy. Chief Gary Harrison from Arctic Athabascan Council said in Whitehorse yesterday that he doesn’t want the Council to evolve “from an environmental body to an extractive body.”
Arctic states are working towards the establishment of a circumpolar business forum and the Council’s new diplomatic mission to support businesses in Arctic development is important. This shift of focus on the Arctic circumpolar cooperative agenda must consider the balance between short-term development and the long-term sustainability of the region. There is a vast difference between the speed of industrial development and the progress on environmental protection. There is a risk that development will outpace conservation.
Positive signals are coming from United States officials that science will be central to the American chairmanship beginning in May 2015. Arctic states cannot afford to neglect protecting the Arctic environment, and they must take responsibility for the long-term functioning of rapidly changing Arctic ecosystems and live up to the original mandate of the Council.

The marine protection gap

General,

The Canadian icebreaker ship Louis St. Laurent, breaking through the sea ice of the Canada Basin, Beaufort Sea, Alaska, United States. © Paul Nicklen/National Geographic Stock / WWF-Canada

The Canadian icebreaker ship Louis St. Laurent, breaking through the sea ice of the Canada Basin, Beaufort Sea, Alaska, United States. © Paul Nicklen/National Geographic Stock / WWF-Canada


Representatives of Arctic states, Indigenous peoples and observers to the Arctic Council are gathered here in Whitehorse, Yukon to begin the first major meeting under the new Canadian chairmanship.
While Whitehorse is a long way from the Arctic Ocean, the sea will be on people’s minds as they gather here. This will be their first official chance to talk about a major task that the Council has completed, an identification of the most important marine areas in the Arctic.
This identification covers both international sea areas, and also those in national waters. It was driven by a previous Arctic Council report, the Arctic Marine shipping Assessment, that recognized increasing use and development of the Arctic will require some way of protecting the places most important to life there. The Council deserves praise for this achievement – it also requires the ambition to follow it with concrete actions for marine conservation.
So far, the Council has agreed to explore the need for environmental protection for places in international Arctic waters. This is a start, but a much smaller start than is really required to protect Arctic life, and the livelihoods of the peoples who rely on that life. The reality is that only about 15% of what the Council calls Arctic marine areas are “international”, that is, beyond national jurisdiction of any one state.
Now that the Council knows where the important marine areas are, and knows that most of them are in national waters, it needs some way of advancing protection of those nationally-controlled areas. Of course, the protection of those areas is really up to the states concerned, not a job for the Council. What the Council could do is to look at the important areas already identified, and work out which of those areas would, taken together, provide a bottom line of protection for Arctic marine life and ecosystems. This could provide an international plan for prioritizing protection, a plan that could and should then be put into practice by all the Arctic coastal states through appropriate national instruments.
While working at a national level on marine protection, Arctic states and observer states should join their forces to identify international areas where may apply together to the United Nations for special protection status.
 

Arctic Council will study Arctic adaptation

General

© Marc-Andre Dubois

© Marc-Andre Dubois


I attended the latest Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme Working Group meeting in the Faroe Islands to communicate WWF’s vision for the future of the Arctic. In these remote islands, the Arctic countries were discussing how to approach adaptation actions in the context of a rapidly changing Arctic. The overall idea of this new project is to assess impacts of climate change as well as other changes expected to affect the region like increasing industrialization, shipping and tourism.
In order to assess adaptation actions in the Arctic on short and long term, the group will rely on existing scenarios on global key drivers of change. Expected global developments are likely to impact the Arctic’s people and ecosystems. Global economic development and our increasing demand for natural resources will be one of the important challenges for the Arctic environment during decades ahead.
As emerging economies like Brazil or some Asian nations mature and global human population in 2050 is projected to hit 9.6 billion, there is a pressing need to adopt a forward-looking sustainability framework to guide our management of the environment. WWF understands adaptation through the lens of our relationship with nature which means that adaptation actions in the Arctic region must aim to enhance both human well-being and ecosystem resilience.

Losing an icy friend

General

Iceberg encountered on a voyage through the Northwest Passage on the ship Silent Sound, Summer 2009. © Cameron Dueck / WWF

Iceberg encountered on a voyage through the Northwest Passage on the ship Silent Sound, Summer 2009. © Cameron Dueck / WWF


As we hit the annual Arctic summer sea ice low, WWF’s Samantha Smith reflects on her years spent in the Arctic, and the lives and cultures we are losing with the ice.
Watching climate change eat away at the Arctic sea ice is like watching a best friend waste away. I have nearly overwhelming feelings of sadness, resignation and even anger at how we could have let this happen – how we continue to let this happen.
I worked for WWF in the Arctic for more than ten years, out in the field with reindeer herders, with scientists in ships by the ice edge and in meeting rooms with ministers. For all of those people, a constant preoccupation is the state of the Arctic’s snow and ice. Ice is the defining characteristic of the high north all year round. Sea ice is the home, maternity ward, and feeding place of the Arctic life we can see, the seals, walrus and polar bears. What we do not see is the springtime melt, when plankton under the ice is released by the melt in a cascade of food, bringing the icy seas to life for fish and seabirds and whales, powering and animating the whole Arctic food web.
This life gives life to the peoples of the Arctic, giving them healthy local food. The sea ice also functions as a road connecting the far-flung communities of the north. These roads are now becoming treacherous, and people are nervous, even fearful of routes used for generations. And there is talk now of ships soon being able to sail through the Arctic during summers.
While I spend no time in the Arctic now, it’s never far from my thoughts. I will always remember the warmth and hospitality of northern communities, the beauty of a single pure white ivory gull; three young walrus popping out of  the water with eyes even wider than my own, a polar bear mom and her fuzzy cub suddenly appearing as we scrambled away to give them space.
This is a world that had essentially changed very little in human history. Now each year, scientists measure how much Arctic sea ice is left. Last year it hit a dramatic new low; today, at the end of the Arctic summer, it is still low and getting ever thinner. People who study the relation between climate and sea ice say that the Arctic has entered a new state, one that may be hard to halt.
The worst part is that we could have done much more to prevent this.  A decade ago, I was part of the Arctic Climate Impact Assessment (ACIA). It was the first full-scale review of what climate was doing and was likely to do to the Arctic. Scientists told us then that we must phase out the use of coal, oil and gas, or expect sea ice to melt away.  Looking back, the most frightening thing is the extraordinary decline that has occurred already since the turn of the century. We didn’t listen, we didn’t act and now we are seeing the consequences.
I have a new job now in WWF: I lead our global work on climate and energy. My dream of saving the Arctic is the same, but now I’m doing it by fighting climate change. And to fight climate change, we have to move immediately and on a global scale away from dirty fossil fuels, the single biggest source of the CO2 pollution that is melting sea ice, and to clean and safe renewable energy.
This year, WWF and many other organizations are campaigning to get banks, governments and pension funds to put their money into renewables and take it out of fossil fuels. We want at least US$40 billion in new investments for renewable energy and commitments not to invest in new coal, oil and gas projects. We know this is just a start, but we also know that we have to start now.
Moving investment is one of the most concrete things we can do. Some Arctic countries are beginning to understand this:  the United States, Norway, Sweden, Iceland, Denmark and Finland have all committed to virtually end overseas public funding to coal power . This is making me hopeful, and I hope to see more.
While the Arctic feels far away to many, the solutions to keeping it in something like its present state couldn’t be closer to home. We can all take responsibility to ask our pension funds, our banks and our governments to take this lead.
I’m hoping the anger and sadness I feel at the loss of the sea ice will melt away in the coming years, thawed by the actions of people and governments to stop the ice decline, and to take best care of the ice that remains.

Are the Faroe Islands Arctic?

General,

Rainbow over the Faroe Islands. © Marc-Andre Dubois / WWF

Rainbow over the Faroe Islands. © Marc-Andre Dubois / WWF


This week, I’m in the Faroe Islands in order to attend a meeting of the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme (AMAP), one of six Working Groups of the Arctic Council.
At 62°00’N, the Faroe Islands lie midway between Norway and Iceland, about 4° south of the official boundary of the Arctic Circle. There’s an ongoing discussion about defining the boundaries of the Arctic — highly relevant for these islands, whose government just released an Arctic policy entitled: The Faroe Islands – a Nation in the Arctic. This self-governing region is part of the Nordic family of nations, but are these remote islands Arctic?
On Sunday, our group was invited to participate to a bus tour leaving from Tórshavn, the capital of the archipelago to the Viðareiði . Viðareiði is the northernmost village in the Faroe Islands. It was cold, rainy, windy and beautiful. The islands are located at the heart of the Gulf Stream delivering a cold oceanic climate, which means that the islands don’t experience a long-lasting accumulation of snow. The bus wandered over bridges and tunnels along steep slopes facing powerful North Atlantic waters.
The average temperature in July is an important environmental and biological indicator of ‘northernness’. An average temperature of 10º C  closely corresponds to the treeline. If we use this indicator, large terrestrial areas of the Faroese archipelago mountains are indeed Arctic.
The harsh climatic conditions and the expected consequences of Arctic industrial development here lead me to conclude that the Faroe Islands will indeed be an important stakeholder in the Arctic’s future.

What’s new with the Svalbard polar bears?

From the field, Polar bears,

In April 2013, our partners at the Norwegian Polar Institute (NPI) began tracking a number of polar bears on Svalbard using GPS-enabled collars. Here’s an update on two of the bears from NPI’s Magnus Andersen. See all bears on the Polar Bear Tracker.

Polar bear N26135


N26135 is continuing her journey far into Russian territory. She crossed the Barents Sea, walked south of Franz Josef Land, passed the northern tip of Novaya Zemlya and continued all the way to the Severnaya Zemlya archipelago. The ice edge has been receding in a north easterly direction and N26135 has continuously followed the ice.
During the last weeks she has moved to the north, again presumably a response to the ice conditions in the area. In the beginning of September she was at about 82 degrees north and 91 degrees east — that is very far away from Svalbard!
During the next month or so the seasonal ice melt will slow down as temperatures drop, and soon we will see a growing amount of ice again. We are following the movements of N26135 closely and cross our fingers that her collar will continue to transmit, so that we are able to document more of this fascinating journey.
 

Polar bear N23637


The difference in movement patterns between polar bears tagged in the same area in Svalbard is striking, as seen when we compare N23637 and N26135. Where one is crossing oceans the other is simply walking back and forth on a stretch of coastline of less than 100 km.
N23637 is constantly moving, slowly but surely along the coast. She may stop for a few days in one spot, but then continue. We believe that she is searching for food, both marine and terrestrial, and making use of whatever she can find, be it a carcass, plant material or maybe a seal on a piece of drifting glacier ice. She probably knows this area like the back of her paw, and has walked here since she was a cub, together with her mother for the first two years.
Research has shown that several generations of polar bears may stay more or less within the same area in Svalbard, using the same general region for denning and hunting in the same fjords. Fall has come to Svalbard now, the night is darker and the temperature is dropping below zero. Soon the mountain tops will be covered by snow. The bears are waiting for winter to come, and for the ocean to freeze up again.

Arctic states to end foreign investment in coal

General

Five Arctic states have joined the US in shutting down their government’s foreign investments in dirty coal power. Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland and Iceland joined the US in making the move after a meeting with President Obama in Stockholm.
This is important not only because of the likely reduction in the use of coal for power, but also in the message it sends that six Arctic states are working together and taking seriously their responsibilities to lead the way in taking action on climate change.
Read more…