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Forests
Make a Difference
About 2.3 million square miles of forest are harvested annually to supply global consumption. As a consumer of forest products - things like paper, furniture, and cosmetics - your purchasing decisions have an important impact on forests. The companies that produce and sell forest products depend on your dollars, so they will listen to your opinions and react to your behavior.
WWF believes that the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) offers the best way forward. It is currently the only credible label for good forest management. Through its chain-of-custody monitoring, FSC tracks timber products from the forest floor to the retail shelf. Thus, the FSC provides credible independent verification of good forest management and is currently the only certification scheme that ensures environmentally responsible, socially beneficial and economically viable management of forests. Customers purchasing products bearing the FSC logo know their purchase supports sound forestry.
What You Can Do For Forests
Individuals
Avoid buying timber from illegally or poorly managed sources by looking and asking for timber and paper products that have credible certification. Ask retailers, architects, builders, carpenters – anyone involved in using wood for a living to source timber that is from well-managed forests.Join WWF's Conservation Action Network and help us reach out to lawmakers, corporations, and other institutions that influence forest management. You can also contribute to conserving forests globally by joining WWF as a member, supporter or donor.
Business and industry
Timber producers, suppliers, retailers and paper manufacturers can join the Global Forest & Trade Network and commit to purchasing, trading and producing timber and paper products that are independently certified as coming from well-managed forests. By joining the Network, companies convey a message to the consumer and their investors that they are helping to protect the world’s forests and strengthening the markets for socially and environmentally responsible products.
Financial institutions
Be responsible about your investments. Check that you have social and environmental criteria which include credible certification to ensure that your investments are not buying used to support the conversion of forests of high conservation value to other land uses or contributing to forest destruction.
Governments
Governments can invest in protecting, managing and restoring their forest resources not only for the environmental services that they provide but also for long term economic and social benefits.
Read about WWF's work in shaping forest policy
