Responsible Forestry

Our Work
Responsible Forestry

Our Work
Responsible Forestry

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Overview
Why It Matters
Impacts
What WWF is Doing
How You Can Help
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Overview

Forests are vital to life on Earth. They purify the air we breathe, filter the water we drink, prevent erosion, and act as an important buffer against climate change. Forests offer a home to much of the world’s diverse array of plants and animals and provide essential natural resources from timber and food to medicinal plants. Forests also support the lives of local communities and help them to thrive.

But forests around the world are under threat. Despite the key role forests play in the world's environmental and economic health, we continue to lose forests, along with the endangered animals that live in them, at the rate of 36 football fields per minute. Illegal logging, poor forest management practices, and growing demand for forest and agricultural products contribute to their rampant destruction. Deforestation is especially severe in some of the world’s most biologically diverse regions, such as the Amazon, Borneo and Sumatra, the Congo Basin, and the Russian Far East. As a result, nearly half the world’s original forests have been lost.

36

We lose forests at the rate of 36 football fields per minute.

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Priority Commodities

New Hope for Forests and Families in Indonesia

WWF has offered a way for community members to help rehabilitate their forests and earn a living. Our reforestation programs in Indonesia help preserve our most precious wildlife and empower local people.

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Why It Matters

Forests provide invaluable environmental, social and economic benefits to us all. Many of the world’s most endangered animals depend on forests for their survival. These forests also contribute directly to the livelihoods of 90 percent of over one billion people that live in extreme poverty. They play a central role in the world’s economic health, as the forest industry generates over $186 billion in global trade in primary wood products to supply the growing population of consumers around the world.
Every business is in the forest business. Whether a company uses wood to make its products, or consumes wood fiber in paper or packaging, every company depends on the forest industry in some way. Despite forests’ importance, the world’s appetite for cheap timber and paper products drives irresponsible and often illegal logging in vast areas of forest worldwide. How can the forest industry sustainably secure their resource base to meet the world’s future needs for timber and paper products, while maintaining the forests’ biodiversity and ecological values? The answer lies in responsible forestry.

Impacts

Much of the world’s forest loss is driven by conversion of natural forests to other land uses including pulp, palm oil and soy plantations. Deforestation and degradation from illegal and unsustainable logging, fires and fuelwood harvesting can imperil wildlife, jeopardize people’s livelihoods, and intensify climate change.

Disrupted Livelihoods

Millions of people rely directly on forests for food, medicine, fuel and shelter through small-scale agriculture, hunting and gathering, and harvesting forest products. Poorly managed forests deprive such communities of healthy livelihoods.

Responsible Forestry Disreputed Livlihoods

Climate Change

Deforestation represents 15% of global greenhouse gas emissions, which contributes to climate change. Greenhouse gases are released when forests are destroyed or degraded by activities such as illegal and unsustainable logging and from land conversion for agriculture.

Soil Erosion and Water Cycles

Poor forest management promotes soil erosion by increasing runoff and reducing the protection of the soil provided by tree litter. When tree cover thins, damp soils of the forest floor heat up and dry out, changing the forest’s delicately balanced ecosystem.

Biodiversity Loss

When forest cover is removed, biodiversity can be severely impacted. For wildlife this can mean loss of shelter, food sources and migration routes. Human-wildlife conflicts such as hunting and poaching increase as habitat shrinks and new logging roads extend into previously unlogged areas. About 80% of the world's documented species can be found in tropical rainforests, which means deforestation threatens a majority of the Earth’s biodiversity.

What WWF Is Doing

This palm oil plantation is certified according to criteria for sustainable palm oil production.

Big problems require bold solutions. WWF advocates for Zero Net Deforestation and Forest Degradation by 2020. This means no net forest loss through deforestation and no net decline in forest quality through degradation. This ambitious goal requires engaging with many industry sectors that impact forest health, to reduce their forest “footprint.” Markets for timber, wood products, and pulp and paper obviously affect forests, but many other industries such as palm oil, soy and beef play important roles too. Consumers also play an essential role, by choosing wood and paper products that are from responsibly managed forests.

Protecting Threatened Forests

Only around 13% of the world‘s forests are protected, and many of these are still threatened from encroachment and degradation. WWF encourages the establishment of new protected areas and the creation of networks of protected forests and corridors between them. These networks improve the forests' resilience, allow animals and plant life to access, migrate, disperse across multiple areas, and ensure that healthy ecosystems thrive.

Tackling the Drivers of Deforestation

WWF works with key companies across several commodity sectors to reduce deforestation and ecological and social impacts associated with unsustainable production of forest products and agricultural commodities such as palm oil, soy, and beef. For example, through the Global Forest and Trade Network (GFTN), WWF engages with companies that are committed to sourcing their wood and paper products from responsibly -managed forests. WWF also advocates for policy reforms that ensure adequate regulatory and financial frameworks are in place to incentivize responsible forest practices. We work to encourage responsible consumption of certified wood, paper and agricultural products from responsibly managed sources.

Restoring Degraded Forests

WWF works in places including Borneo and India in partnership with local communities to return degraded forests to a more natural state, which requires much more than just planting new trees. Improved water quality, soil stabilization, access to food, medicines and raw materials, and stable sources of income for local people also need to be restored.

Improving Forest Management

Through our Global Forest & Trade Network program (GFTN), we have established collaborations with hundreds of companies in more than 30 countries to improve forest management and drive demand for products from responsibly managed forests. We also work to increase the area of forests under responsible and credibly certified forest management. And we work to help local communities retain their traditional rights over their land.

Publications

Illegal Logging in the Russian Far East: Global Demand and Taiga Destruction

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Synthesizing over 10 years of on-the-ground field observations into an eye-opening report, WWF's Illegal Logging in the Russian Far East: Global Demand and Taiga Destruction highlights a sobering reality: Russia’s forest sector has become deeply criminalized, with poor law enforcement, allowing illegal loggers to plunder valuable timber stocks of oak, ash, elm, and linden with impunity.
A Brief for U.S. Companies Purchasing Forest Products from China and the Russian Far East

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Forests in the Amur-Heilong watershed, particularly those in the Russian Far East, are under tremendous pressure to supply timber to meet growing global demand for wood products. Increasing demand for this timber over the last two decades has fueled illegal and unsustainable logging in some of the Amur’s most valuable and threatened forests.