The media is full of dramatic and demoralising headlines about the environment, so it is nice to hear some positive ecological news occasionally.

While much of the press coverage about climate change focuses on the threat to humans, some species of animal are already in danger thanks to the erosion of their habitats and in some cases, the greed of man.

That makes the work of bodies such as the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) so important, particularly if it can continue to produce the results it has during 2009.

Among the WWF's success stories this year are helping to safeguard the future of mountain gorillas in the Democratic Republic of Congo and of pandas in Sichuan.

It has also played key lobbying and support roles in the creation of a new protected park area in a part of Bhutan which is a natural habitat for snow leopards and tigers, and an artic park in Russia, which it is hoped will help to secure the survival of the polar bear.

The WWF also remains active in putting pressure on politicians to adopt greener policies and is organising a single-city Earth Hour for the Danish capital on December 16th 2009 to coincide with the Copenhagen climate change conference.

Implementing energy saving measures and switching to green products at home can sometimes seem a little futile when compared to the bigger climate change picture.

But when results like this are being achieved across the world it makes all those simple, everyday measures seem a lot more worthwhile.