Special Interest Group Research Paper

Interest groups are one important mechanism through which citizens in the United States make their ideas, needs, and views known to elected officials. Citizens can usually find an interest group that focuses on their concerns, no matter how specialized they may be.
An interest group is an organization of people with similar policy goals that tries to influence the political process to try to achieve those goals. In doing so, interest groups try to influence every branch and every level of government. The multiple policy arenas help distinguish interest groups from political parties. Interest groups may also support candidates for office, but American interest groups do not run their own slate of candidates. Interest groups are often policy specialists, where as parties are policy generalists. Which means, interest groups do not face the limitation imposed, by trying to appeal to everyone.
The interest group i have chosen to study and do research upon is the World Wildlife Fund. It is the world’s largest independent conservation organization with over 5 million supporters worldwide, working in more than 100 countries, supporting around 13,000 conservation and environmental projects. WWF supports the enforcement of appropriate wildlife trade laws by supporting enforcement of cities, the best known international body for regulating international trade in wildlife. WWFs mission is to conserve nature and reduce the most crucial threats to the diversity of life on earth and to build a future in which people live in harmony with nature.

The world wildlife fund was founded on April 29th, 1961, in Morges Switzerland by Julian Huxley, Edward Nicholson, Peter Scott, Prince Bernhard of Lippe-Biesterfeld, Prince Philip, and Duke of Edinburgh. To this day, the headquarters is still based where it has been originally founded in Switzerland. Over the fifty years since founded, WWF invested almost $10 billion in more than 13000 projects and, there has been a majority of candidates that have ran for president of the group.
Many have made huge impacts to the fund such as; Chief Eleazar Chukwuemeka Anyaoku, Mrs. Sara Morrison, Ruud Lubbers, Syed Babar Ali and many more. But the current president, Yolanda Kakabadse whom started her presidency in 2010 is striving for WWF to give all of their 5 million+ employees all the kinds of benefits they need to support them in their work and home lives. The organization has offices in more than 100 different countries around the world.
So in order for WWF to achieve their mission, they focus their efforts on two broad areas; biodiversity and footprint. They first want to ensure that biodiversity stays healthy and vibrant for generations to come. They are focusing on conserving critical places and species that are extremely important for the conservation of our earth’s rich biodiversity. The second, is to reduce the negative impacts of human activity which is our ecological footprint . They are working to make sure that the natural resources required for life; land, water, and air are managed sustainably and fairly.
Since the world wildlife fund has been trying to achieve this mission, they have stated that they do not endorse any political candidates or political party solely because they choose to concentrate their efforts on the conservation and the preservation of our land by protecting endangered species and habitats. In addition, they work night and day to preserve and create protected areas, link conservation needs with human needs, build effective institutions to help sustain conservation efforts, and address serious global threats like climate change and toxic chemicals that cause pollution.
The world wildlife fund has a mission that they wish to achieve and by doing so, the fund will keep working as hard as they have been to conserve nature and most importantly the worlds endangered species. The WWF has taught me a lot more than i thought i knew about the fund. Realizing what the fund is truly about opened my eyes and the love that i have for animals makes me want to become apart of the organization some time in my future. This special interest group was a true match for me. I learned more about what is is, what they represent and how they operate.