Forests Stories

  • Improved cookstoves empower women in the Democratic Republic of Congo

    March 07, 2017

    Associations, some formed mainly of women, in the Democratic Republic of Congo are building new, improved cookstoves by hand to help the environment—and themselves.

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  • Bittersweet: chocolate's impact on the environment

    WWF Magazine: Spring 2017
    At least 2,000 years ago, people in the Americas began cultivating the cocoa tree for its dark, bitter beans, which they brewed into a drink spiced with hot peppers. Today, we blend the beans with milk and sugar and call the stuff chocolate.
    chocolate on a table
  • A tiny aircraft gives researchers a big-picture view of Thailand and Myanmar

    WWF Magazine: Spring 2017
    Conservationists have been working in the Dawna Tenasserim Landscape—which spans the Thailand/Myanmar border—for years. Rarely, though, do they get to see this magnificent wilderness area from the air.
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  • Living among the trees: Five animals that depend on forests

    January 23, 2017

    Forests are very important to us, and to many different species. WWF is working to address the threats to forests, and protect the species that call them home. Check out some of the animals who hang out in forests. 

    tree kangaroo portrait
  • Why the FSC label matters to wildlife—and all of us

    October 11, 2016

    The FSC label ensures that the products you buy are from forests managed responsibly. And it means a future for both wildlife and people.

    Borneo orangutan
  • Put 'protecting the forest' on your holiday shopping list

    WWF Magazine: Winter 2016
    Products that carry the FSC logo have been certified to Forest Stewardship Council® standards as having been sourced according to specific standards of environmental and social responsibility.
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  • Human. Nature.

    WWF Magazine: Fall 2016
    A Wae Ma Gite villager on his way to fish squids in the sea.
  • New hope for Africa's largest forest park

    May 30, 2016

    As the second largest tropical forest park in the world, Salonga is a global treasure. It is home for bonobos and one of the last remaining habitats for the forest elephant. Now, a newly signed agreement brings together the Congolese Institute for Nature Conservation (ICCN) and WWF to co-manage the protected area.

    ranger in Salonga National Park
  • Understanding and improving the pulp and paper market in China

    WWF Magazine: Summer 2016
    Forests all over the world have been harvested illegally or irresponsibly to meet escalating demand for pulp and paper.
    Freshly cut wood at a paper mill in Tengzhou, China
  • Financing conservation

    WWF Magazine: Spring 2016
    WWF’s plan to secure a permanent future for some of the highest-priority protected areas on Earth
    Project Finance illustration
  • Capturing atmospheric data in the Amazon

    WWF Magazine: Spring 2016
    Capturing atmospheric data in the Amazon
    ATTO tower in the Amazon
  • WWF’s two-part plan to save the Javan rhino

    WWF Magazine: Spring 2016
    WWF’s approach is based in the fact that when geographically bound rhino populations reach the limit of numbers their habitat can support, reproduction drops.
    Javan Rhino
  • Waterfall in Costa Rica
  • Stopping Illegal Logging in Africa

    September 10, 2015

    Many wood products in American homes—from the kitchen table to hardwood floors—come from the same forested areas in Africa where elephants, rhinos, lions and other magnificent species roam wild. Few purchasers know that the wood from these forests is illegal. It was harvested, transported, processed, bought or sold in violation of national laws.

    forest in kenya
  • Endangered species threatened by unsustainable palm oil production

    The world’s most popular vegetable oil—palm oil—is produced in tropical rain forests everywhere. While it can be produced sustainably, palm oil made with conventional production methods can lead to unchecked agricultural expansion that threatens forests and wildlife.

    orangutan
  • What is REDD+?

    WWF Magazine: Fall 2015
  • Deforestation in Peru

    WWF Magazine: Fall 2015
    How indigenous communities, government agencies, nonprofits and businesses work together to stop the clearing of forests
    Rain drenched village in Peru
  • Bhutan Rising

    WWF Magazine: Summer 2015
    As Bhutan’s fortunes rise, its natural and cultural heritage rest in the balance.
    Tashi Dorji stands in Bhutan’s Phobjikha Valley
  • Should We Care About the Difference Between the Forest and the Trees?

    WWF Magazine: Summer 2015
    How can we map deforestation and forest degradation in a way that distinguishes between a functioning forest and a simple group of trees?
    Aerial shot of the forest canopy
  • Reclaimed Wood Products Take a Load off of Forests

    WWF Magazine: Summer 2015
    Increasingly, people are repurposing wood products—rendering barn siding into floorboards and shaping pallets into furniture, all without logging another tree.
    Reclaimed wood
  • Orangutans and Palm Oil: Protecting Forests to Help Great Apes

    WWF Magazine: Summer 2015
    Palm oil plantations and illegal logging drive habitat loss
    Orangutan swings from a vine and holds out palm
  • 10 Species that Hug Trees

    April 02, 2015

    Eighty percent of the world’s known terrestrial plant and animal species can be found in forests. Cool fact: a square kilometer of forest may be home to more than 1,000 species. Yet forests are disappearing at an alarming rate—18.7 million acres of forests annually, equivalent to 27 soccer fields every minute. Check out these species that hug trees.

    monarch butterfly in tree
  • Price of Toilet Paper for the Planet

    WWF Magazine: Spring 2015
  • Alternatives to Wood

    January 13, 2015

    Trees are cut down at a rapid rate to meet the demand for products we all use. Some are products that often are on our weekly shopping lists, such as toilet paper, diapers and tissues. What if we used something other than newly-harvested trees to create these products?

    Forest