The Wild Things
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Forests
Why It Matters
80 percent of the world's species can be found in the forest
© WWF-Canon / Martin HARVEY
Forests mean different things to different people. For some it is a refuge, a retreat, a place to escape to and find rest and solitude. For others it is home and a source of livelihood. Forests in their many forms harbor much of the world’s rapidly diminishing biodiversity, and are vital to sustaining life on Earth.
Forests provide many important natural resources – from timber to paper to medicinal plants. They purify the air we breathe, help sustain the quality and availability of freshwater supplies, and regulate local and global climate by absorbing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Many of the world’s most threatened and endangered animals live in forests, and 1.6 billion people rely on ecosystem services forests offer, including for food, clothing, traditional medicine, shelter and subsistence agriculture. Yet nearly 36 million acres of natural forest is lost each year – an area roughly the size of New York State. This rapid forest loss is having devastating consequences for the environment, and the wildlife and communities that depend on forests for their survival.
A world without trees
Deforestation is responsible for 20 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions.
WWF’s integrated approach of sound environmental practices for the protection, management and restoration of forest landscapes makes effective linkages between forest conservation, species protection and the well-being of communities who depend on the forest for their survival.
Read more on what WWF is doing to protect, manage and restore the forests around the world
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