Forests are absolutely essential. Help WWF conserve the world's most important forests to sustain nature's diversity, benefit our climate, and support human well-being.
We can’t protect wildlife and biodiversity without forests. Forests provide habitat for 68% of all mammal species and 75% of all bird species. And 60% of all vascular plants occur in tropical forests. Forests are home to people as well. More than one-third of the world’s population has a close dependence on forests and forest products.
Despite the many benefits forests provide, deforestation is still happening at a devastating rate. In 2025, the world lost 10.6 million acres of tropical primary rainforests, equivalent to a rate of 11 soccer fields per minute.
The main drivers of forest loss and degradation are expanding agriculture and grazing, building roads and other infrastructure, mining, and unsustainable logging. These impacts are compounded by climate change (for example, increased wildfires causing more loss and degradation).
How WWF Protects Forests
WWF aims to protect, manage, and restore forests through a comprehensive, inclusive, and place-based approach with three strategic goals:
• Halting deforestation
• Improving protection and management of up to 50% of the world’s forests
• Restoring over 860 million acres (350 million hectares) of forest landscapes
We do this by:
• Addressing causes of deforestation, especially unsustainable agriculture and infrastructure
• Securing and managing critical forest landscapes
• Increasing the perceived value of forests and mobilizing finance
WWF focuses our work in major “deforestation fronts” like the Amazon, the Congo Basin, Indonesia, and the Greater Mekong—home to the planet’s largest remaining tropical rainforests—while purposefully pursuing innovative forest conservation efforts in other critical areas.
To be effective, we must work locally—with Indigenous Peoples and local communities as forest stewards and vital participants in decision-making and planning processes—but also regionally and globally. We execute from local to global and global to local, advancing science-based policy and sustainability standards and forging partnerships with diverse stakeholders to build movements and put ideas into action on the ground. Across these efforts, WWF places people at the forefront of our work, equally prioritizing the conservation of nature and its contributions to people.
PLEASE DONATE TODAY
Be the voice that nature so desperately needs. Your support powers WWF’s work around the world to fight climate change, restore our forests, oceans and freshwater, end poaching and online wildlife trafficking, and eliminate plastic pollution.
Your donation will support WWF’s global conservation work.
