Deforestation and Forest Degradation Stories

  • Improving captive tiger management in Viet Nam

    February 22, 2024

    Under the USAID Saving Threatened Wildlife project, WWF supports Viet Nam’s efforts to reduce illegal wildlife trafficking by engaging with leaders in the Vietnamese government, private sector, and civil society. WWF-Viet Nam and its governmental and NGO partners have been advocating for and working towards stronger regulation and management of Viet Nam’s captive tiger facilities.

    We sat down with Anh Le from WWF-Viet Nam to find out more about this critical work and how it’s helping to protect tigers in Viet Nam and across Asia.

    Tiger standing in a caged area
  • 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
  • An iconic forest, protected and returning

    WWF Magazine: Summer 2023
    Between 1985 and 2014, a wide swath of Sumatra’s forested land—called Bukit Tigapuluh or Thirty Hills—lost 32% of its forest cover because of deforestation.
    Orangutan hanging in tree
  • Moving forward

    WWF Magazine: Summer 2023
    WWF and our partners are pursuing two initiatives united by a shared vision for a sustainable future
    Lion resting at base of cliff
  • Sharing Space

    WWF Magazine: Summer 2023
    The sounds of squabbling baboons and squawking guinea fowl greet Tjavarekua Tjijahura as she rises to prepare breakfast and break camp.
    A rhino partially emerges from vegetation
  • 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
  • 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
  • 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
  • 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
  • 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
  • Scientists record 110 new species in Greater Mekong

    August 25, 2020

    A new WWF report details a vibrant diversity of plants and vertebrate animals in Southeast Asia that have never been scientifically identified.

    A close up of a lizard's face.
  • 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
  • Sealing Pandora's Box

    WWF Magazine: Fall 2020
    Environmental destruction and the high-risk wildlife trade are intimately connected with the emergence of new zoonotic diseases like COVID-19, but conservation could help prevent future pandemics.
    Red and green germ illustration with trees
  • In the Congo Basin, forests get a boost from an unlikely source

    WWF Magazine: Fall 2020
    Acoustic guitars are often made from wood species susceptible to overharvesting and climate change. In the Congo Basin, Taylor Guitars is providing a hopeful model for restoring vulnerable tonewoods.
    Front of acoustic guitar
  • Healing forests

    WWF Magazine: Fall 2020
    As the world reels from the COVID-19 pandemic, WWF is working with global health company Johnson & Johnson to understand the underlying links between disease and deforestation.
    Landscape of forest canopy from above
  • World on fire

    WWF Magazine: Fall 2020
    As flames engulfed parts of the world last year, WWF sent emergency support to help local firefighters and communities in need.
    Landscape with dark smoke filling sky
  • 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
  • WWF's Josefina Braña Varela on the importance of protecting our forests

    WWF Magazine: Fall 2020
    As vice president and deputy lead for forests, Josefina Braña Varela leads WWF's work to halt deforestation and forest degradation around the world.
    Josefina Braña Varela seated on stage
  • Returning the Atlantic Forest to its wild roots

    WWF Magazine: Fall 2020
    In an ambitious undertaking, WWF and International Paper (IP) are working alongside a local nursery to help restore parts of Brazil’s Atlantic Forest, which has faced of years of deforestation.
    Santos planting seedlings
  • The tree-dwelling mammal with a surprisingly familiar scent

    WWF Magazine: Summer 2020
    Bearcats inhabit the tropical rain forests of Southeast Asia, spending most of their time high in tree canopies. And they're especially known for one strange attribute: They smell like popcorn.
    Bearcat
  • The Turnaround

    WWF Magazine: Summer 2020
    Working alongside communities, governments, and scientists, WWF-Nepal has become an intrepid leader in protecting and conserving endangered tigers and the habitats where they live.
    Aerial view of Bardia National Park, Nepal
  • A hue-shifting chameleon's island home is under threat

    WWF Magazine: Summer 2020
    Madagascar is home to remarkable, unique biodiversity. Unfortunately, threats to the island’s flora and fauna abound. Without strong conservation strategies, several species could be lost for good.
    Chameleon
  • Wildlife corridors help elephants move between habitats in Malaysia

    WWF Magazine: Summer 2020
    In Malaysian state of Sabah, WWF is helping to establish a wildlife corridor through a palm oil plantation to connect two reserves, which will protect crops and allow wildlife to roam freely.
    Elephants