Forests Stories

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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. 

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.

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.

Tawau, the east malaysian district where Christina Ak Lang grew up, is a tropical paradise.

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. 

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.

As vice president and deputy lead for forests, Josefina Braña Varela leads WWF's work to halt deforestation and forest degradation around the world.

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.

Marisela Silva Parra, 41, is the only female member of a WWF-supported group of local farmers and community leaders who are helping their community realize the value of its natural resources. The group calls themselves Los Exploradores—The Explorers.

In partnership with local Indigenous organization Azicatch, WWF is supporting the work of Ecosystem Services Assessment Technical Teams, which combines traditional knowledge with modern conservation practice. The aim is to strengthen Indigenous decision-making and governance and create an environmental management plan for their territory.

The conservation and restoration of forests is a necessary component of a future where humanity is better able to manage and cope with the emergence of new infectious diseases. Without landscapes that balance the needs of both nature and people, the world will continue only to react to global health crises instead of preventing them.

The latest survey assessing the population of monarch butterflies that winter in Mexico indicates a population decrease of 53% since the previous season. In the 2019-2020 wintering season, the area of forest occupied by monarch butterflies was 7 acres, down from 15 acres in the 2018 - 2019 season.

In Nepal, citizen scientists are working with biologists from WWF to help protect tigers, rhinos, elephants, and other wildlife found in Bardia National Park.