Forests Stories

  • In the Central Annamites, an Indigenous group restores its community forest

    March 21, 2024

    Just behind Vuong Van Ga’s house in Doi village, lies the first and only community nursery in this central Vietnamese region. The community nursery is his brainchild, established in early 2022 with technical and financial help from WWF-Viet Nam. The idea was borne out of Ga’s longing to restore the forest to its glory days gone by, when the villagers could glance up from their backyards and spy a thicket of trees.

    Aerial photo of Doi Village
  • Protecting millions of acres in the Amazon

    WWF Magazine: Spring 2024
    Brazil launched the Amazon Region Protected Areas (ARPA) program with WWF and partners in 2002, setting an aspirational goal: permanently secure more than 150 million acres of the Brazilian Amazon.
    A teal and brown tree frog clings to a branch
  • Conservation highlights of 2023

    December 14, 2023

    From launching a new platform that harnesses the power of nature in the fight against the climate crisis to raising critical funding to protect black rhinos in Namibia, together we've taken major strides in 2023.

    Fishing boat on water with grassy hills behind
  • We're off track to protect and restore forests by 2030. Here's how we can change course.

    October 24, 2023

    A startling increase in the speed and intensity of global deforestation has derailed efforts to protect and restore forests by 2030. Fortunately, there's still time to halt deforestation and sustainably manage and restore forests in ways that benefit people and nature.

    Smoking trunks of trees that have been burned to make space for agriculture
  • What the Amazon needs now

    October 09, 2023

    The Amazon is in crisis. Deforestation, degradation, and climate change are pushing the Amazon rain forest and river systems to the edge, undermining the future resiliency of the Amazon’s people and ecosystems. Current levels of deforestation in the Amazon are approximately 17% but we can act now to reverse this trend

    Waterway in Peruvian Amazon runs through trees
  • Meet Herni Kurnia, a field medic making the Sumatran rain forest her hospital

    September 28, 2023

    For Herni Kurnia, a medic and midwife working in the heart of the Sumatran rain forest, nature is her hospital—and that's just how she likes it.

    Herni reaches across a table to take someone's blood pressure
  • The sounds of Brazil’s Atlantic Forest

    The variety of sounds in the Atlantic Forest is astounding. Listen closely and the dull buzz becomes the calls of frogs, insects, birds, and maybe even a capybara.

    Fig tree large roots
  • Righting the wrongs of history and building a sustainable future

    February 23, 2023

    As CEO, Dr. Jennie L. Stephens has led the Center for Heirs' Property Preservation® in helping more than 300 people gain title to their land, covering a combined property value of $22 million dollars.

    Headshot of Jennie Stephens
  • Atlantic Forest declared UN World Restoration Flagship

    December 14, 2022

    For years, communities, individuals, and organizations have pulled together to restore the Atlantic Forest. Known as the Trinational Atlantic Forest Pact, their urgent and vital work is now officially declared by the United Nations as one of the 10 World Restoration Flagship Initiatives.

    Pristine jungle, Atlantic Forest, Brazil
  • Conservation highlights of 2022

    December 13, 2022

    Though the world faces two existential crises—a rapidly warming planet and declining biodiversity—and continues to battle a global pandemic, conservation still made major strides toward protecting wildlife, wild places, and people in 2022.

    aerial view of Colombian mountain range
  • How one Indigenous community uses high-tech tools to defend its territory

    In the wake of the devastating Amazon wildfires of 2019, WWF collaborated with the Kanindé Association of Ethno-Environmental Protection to supply the Uru-Eu-Wau-Wau with terrestrial monitoring equipment—including drones, smartphones, and camera traps—and field training to document illegal deforestation.

    WWF providing drone training to communities. Pictured are people from the Uru-Eu-Wau-Wau territory
  • Celebrating 20 years of protecting the Brazilian Amazon

    September 01, 2022

    Two decades after its creation, ARPA continues to play an essential role in the conservation of this invaluable rain forest, preserving biodiversity, reducing deforestation, and supporting local livelihoods.

    Green, lush trees push up against river water
  • Supporting the Indigenous economy in Putumayo, Colombia

    April 12, 2022

    Miguel Chasoy, a young Inga-Kamëntšá Indigenous man living in Putumayo, Colombia, started a business as an artisan and received a grant for financial and technical support.

    Close-up of hands beading a multi-colored mask
  • Six things to know about forests and your health

    March 10, 2022

    Through extensive investigation, WWF uncovered ample evidence that forests provide, prevent, and heal. Public health and forests are entwined—at the local, regional, and global scale.

    Pariyar
  • How forest restoration takes root

    October 26, 2021

    To restore a forest landscape—one that will thrive for generations into the future—every detail must be planned and adapted over time.

    A toucan peeks out from behind a tree in the Atlantic Forest.
  • Reforesting the Global South with WWF's Education for Nature and UPS

    August 03, 2021

    Forests cover approximately one-third of the Earth’s surface and are home to more than three-quarters of the planet's remaining biodiversity, but are declining around the world at an alarming rate. Learn about how WWF's Education for Nature program and The UPS Foundation partner to fund locally-led reforestation and restoration projects in areas with critical need.

    A group of women planting saplings in the dirt
  • From Forest To Market

    Zoonotic diseases are a stark reminder of how humans and nature are connected. While we can't predict where the next spillover will happen, we are able to identify the combination of factors that increase risk.

    An illustrated scene with leaves and branches with the sillouhette of a coronovirus in the middle
  • Bringing forest restoration to life

    January 28, 2021

    As restoration coordinator for forest restoration organization Copaíba, Mayra Flores works manages activities on the ground to bring forest recovery projects to life.

    Maya Flores of Copaiba restoration project
  • Deforestation fronts

    January 13, 2021

    A new WWF report on global forest cover and forest loss finds that over 160,000 square miles, an area roughly the size of California, were lost in deforestation hot spots around the world between 2004 and 2017. Deforestation puts human health and the health of our planet at risk. 

     Deforestation aerial photo of lush green forest on the left and bare brown dirt next to it on the right
  • A hilltop coffee plantation benefits from robust and healthy forests

    November 03, 2020

    On a hilltop in southeast Brazil, 4,500 feet above the surrounding landscape, is a coffee plantation that has been operating in the same family for more than 150 years—five generations. Owner Ellen Fontana is restoring additional forest habitat on her property, connecting the span of natural forest on her land to another forest fragment on a neighboring property.

    An aerial view of a lush, green coffee farm on a sunny day
  • Investing in "Thirty Hills"

    October 27, 2020

    Thirty Hills is the last large block of intact, lowland forest still standing in central Sumatra. After five years of successful forest conservation, we celebrate five major wins within this critically important landscape.

    The Bukit Tigapuluh, or “Thirty Hills,” landscape is one of the last great stands of rain forest in the deforestation hotspot that is the Indonesian island of Sumatra
  • Common Ground

    WWF Magazine: Winter 2020
    Tawau, the east malaysian district where Christina Ak Lang grew up, is a tropical paradise.
    Aerial photo of palm field
  • Elephant collaring – protecting the giants of Sabah

    August 12, 2020

    The Elephant Conservation Unit of WWF-Malaysia uses collaring to learn more about the elephants in Sabah. The information they collect from these collars helps the conservationists better protect the elephants and develop strategies to reduce instances of human wildlife conflict. 

    Two elephants emerge from a palm oil plantation
  • Standing Tall

    WWF Magazine: Fall 2020
    Kerry Cesareo, WWF-US senior vice president for forests, on WWF's solutions to protect and restore the world's forests—and to address climate change.
    Looking up at the canopy and sky from the base of a Sequoia tree in Calaveras Big Trees State Park, California