The world is off track to protect and restore forests by 2030. Fortunately, there’s still time to get back on course and meet global goals. WWF’s Forest Pathways report shows how the scale of failed action on the world’s forests is leading to an alarming increase in deforestation. It also shows it’s possible to halt deforestation, sustainably manage forests, and restore them in ways that benefit humanity and nature.

A summary overview of the analysis from the full Deforestation Fronts report.

The causes, pace, and magnitude of deforestation and forest degradation have changed over time. The way that different deforestation drivers are connected and the effects they have on forest ecosystems vary across regions. While progress has been made in halting forest loss and degradation, both continue at alarming rates. This report provides a comprehensive analysis of deforestation, connecting drivers and responses on a global scale.

The importance of biodiversity below the forest canopy is often underappreciated, and yet it is a crucial component of healthy functioning forest ecosystems. Below the Canopy: Plotting Global Trends in Forest Wildlife Populations is the first-ever global assessment of forest-dwelling wildlife populations and highlights the multitude of threats forest-living species are facing.

Deforestation is a major threat both to ecosystems and local economies. The Greater Mekong was the world's most densely forested area in the 1970s, but has now lost a third of its tree cover. It is on course to lose another third between 2010 and 2030 if trends continue.

Extreme weather events are adding a new, ominous threat to the monarch butterflies’ key wintering habitat in Mexico, according to a report by the WWF-Telmex-Telcel Alliance, the National Commission of Natural Protected Areas, and the Institute of Biology of the National Autonomous University of Mexico.

The majority of the timber from Peru is harvested illegally. The new National Pact for Legal Wood represents an unprecedented opportunity to address major challenges in the country’s forestry sector and to create the conditions needed to develop a domestic market for legal Peruvian wood.

A new study by twelve international and Indonesian NGOs, including WWF, shows that in spite of its high-profile commitment to “zero deforestation”, Asia Pulp & Paper (APP) is building one of the world’s largest pulp mills in the Indonesian province of South Sumatra without a sustainable wood supply.

The palm oil industry has caused dramatic deforestation in Indonesia. This report, based on an Eyes on the Forest investigation, demonstrates how tainted crude palm oil entered the supply chains of several of the most well-known palm oil suppliers in the world, including subsidiaries of the Sinar Mas group and Wilmar that operate in Indonesia.

This report identifies 11 regions that will account for more than 80 percent of projected deforestation between 2010 and 2030. If nothing is done, we could lost up to 656,000 square miles of forests (an area more than twice the size of Texas). The report brings together the latest data and expert opinion to identify the regions and the likely causes of deforestation in each place.

Pulp is the base for a lot of products we use every day, such as napkins and paper. Pulp typically comes from natural fibers that are in trees. But purpose-grown and agricultural residue feedstocks – such as bamboo, kenaf and wheat straw—are being explored as alternatives to such fibers.

The study, the first of its kind, conducted by CIFOR and jointly funded by WWF and CIFOR, utilizes a robust methodology to compare nine FSC certified and nine noncertified forest management units across Gabon, Cameroon and Republic of Congo, to assess whether certification yields social benefits above and beyond noncertified FMUs. Overall, the study firmly and consistently confirms that FSC certification has indeed yielded additional social benefit in the Congo Basin.

Indonesia is one of the major exporters of timber products in the world. It is also one of the key countries with serious illegal logging and deforestation issues. Indonesia developed a timber legality certification system to address this problem. This 2014 report includes an assessment of that system and all of the certificates that had been issued under it at the time of the study.

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.

The lush rain forests on the Indonesian island of Sumatra suffer from what may be the world’s fastest deforestation rate, threatening the survival of species and causing massive carbon emissions. WWF found that two brands sold in the United States—Paseo and Livi—are made with paper from Asia Pulp & Paper (APP), which is responsible for more forest destruction in Sumatra than any other single company.