Deforestation and Forest Degradation Stories

Considered a protector and symbol of power, jaguars personify the mysterious beauty of the Amazon. This iconic species plays a vital role in its habitat by controlling other species’ populations and helping maintain a healthy ecosystem. 

When a forest is degraded it still exists, but it can no longer function well. It becomes a shell of its former self; its health declines until it can no longer support people and wildlife by, for example, filtering the air we breathe and water we drink or providing animals with food and places to live.

The flames start out small and barely audible. But within 15 minutes they're two stories high—a roaring wall. It's Jose Luis Neris da Silva's job to make sure they don't burn out of control.

In the Amazon and beyond, WWF’s Earth for Life vision calls for saving massive pieces of the planet we call home.

In 2008, WWF began working with groups in the Goma area to make and sell fuel-efficient cookstoves. Goma Stove, started with a loan from WWF, is now financially independent—and business is booming.

Almost 70% of the deforestation in Colombia happens in its Amazonian forests.

The men in question can’t be named or pictured, because they’re undercover investigators for a deforestation watchdog group called Eyes on the Forest (EoF). And they’re routinely putting their safety on the line to protect Thirty Hills, one of the last great swaths of rainforest on the Indonesian island of Sumatra.

WWF is on a mission to save the world’s forest land. Saving forests means using every tool at our disposal and working with partners around the globe. And that’s where drones come in to play.

The Gran Chaco is the largest South American forest you’ve never heard of.

When his three daughters were hungry, Omary Mbunda would turn to illegal timber for money. That changed when the CARE-WWF Alliance—a partnership focused on creating food systems that better nourish vulnerable communities while supporting healthy ecosystems—began promoting sustainable forestry management and conservation agriculture in Mbondo in 2015.

When we think of wild animals losing their habitats, we usually envision elephants, rhinos, and tigers in faraway places. But monarch butterflies are losing their homes right here in the US—and our food is playing a part.

WWF is working to empower women by teaching them sustainable farming techniques, building their leadership and entrepreneurial skills, and ensuring their representation in decision-making bodies.

The report, New Species of Vertebrates and Plants in the Amazon 2014-2015, details 381 new species that were discovered over 24 months, including 216 plants, 93 fish, 32 amphibians, 20 mammals, 19 reptiles and one bird.

WWF recently concluded a project that worked closely with local communities to reduce land degradation, forest loss, and climate change vulnerability in the Himalayas in Nepal. Empowered by the Global Environment Facility, WWF worked directly with the government of Nepal to design and implement the project.

The village of Sobphouan, with help from WWF, is a leading example of successful efforts in Laos to replace traditional agriculture and farming—drivers of widespread deforestation—with sustainable rattan production. 

Kimberly Clark and WWF have collaborated to raise awareness of the FSC logo and what it represents. 

In Nepal, broom grass is transforming steep, degraded slopes above the Trishuli and Seti rivers in the Aamdanda village. 

WWF and partners have launched a program to reduce pressure on forests and improve the lives of women and marginalized people through projects such as providing improved cook stoves that burn firewood more efficiently.

On Arbor Day, we celebrate the important role trees play. We are working to increase FSC-certified land in the southeastern US, an area known as the "wood basket." 

In 2015, WWF and Apple kicked off a five-year project designed to help China reduce its environmental footprint by producing paper products from responsibly managed forests within its own borders.

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.

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. 

One of the last great stands of rain forest in the deforestation hotspot of the Indonesian island of Sumatra has welcomed an exciting new addition: a baby female orangutan. The infant is the first orangutan born in the Thirty Hills conservation concession since WWF and its partners began managing the 100,000-acre forest in 2015.

Community leaders in Papua are inspiring people to support the approach that local communities, WWF, and others are starting to use to save Papua’s forests—which are some of the largest remaining intact forests in Southeast Asia, but are increasingly at risk of being destroyed to make room for palm oil plantations, as well as mining and industrial logging operations.