Forests

The planet's lungs. Home to people and wildlife. Engines of green economies. Forests are essential to life on Earth. They are home to amazing animals and plants – almost nine out of ten species found on land live in forests. They lock up vast amounts of carbon and release oxygen. Forests make rainfall and filter freshwater. They provide fuelwood and medicines. Forests have been at the heart of WWF’s work for half a century, and we are proud of our accomplishments to protect these amazing ecosystems, the biodiveristy that they harbor, and the communities that have called these forests homes for centuries. We’ve fought for the creation of national parks and other protected areas, helped bring more attention to responsible harvesting and trade of timber products and have helped increase transparency and continual improvement in forest markets; and we’re working to tackle new threats, like the destruction of forests for bioenergy. There's much to celebrate. But forests still face major threats. As more wood is used for energy, more land is cleared for agriculture, new roads bring settlers and industry beyond today frontiers and climate change causes extreme weather events, forests will come under pressure like never before.

Zero net deforestation and forest degradation (zndd)

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Forests' full potential will only be realized if deforestation and forest degradation is stopped. WWF advocates ZNDD by 2020 as a target that reflects the scale and urgency with which threats to the world’s forests and climate need to be tackled. Achieving ZNDD will stem the depletion of forest-based biodiversity and ecosystem services, and associated greenhouse gas emissions. It addresses many targets of the Millenium Development Goals, Convention on Biological Diversity and UN Framework on Climate Change. 

OCEANS

The world's ocean and coasts are home to an incredible array of life and vital to human health, livelihoods and cultures. But damaging and unsustainable human activities are weakening the ocean.

Fragile ecosystems such as corals are dying (corals are predicted to disappear by 2050), some species are at risk of extinction and others with major commercial value are just a shadow of their former abundance. Why is that a problem? Coral reefs provide refuges for a myriad of fish species and other marine life, as well as protection from storms and economic value of close to a trillion USD. Fisheries need to be carefully managed in order to be productive and to avoid undermining the ocean's health.

WWF’s decades of experience, from the Gulf of Mexico to the Southern Oceans, has shown that people are key to sustain the ocean. Through projects that respond to people’s needs – for food, jobs, well-being – over the long term we can revive this complex but priceless biological engine which we all depend on.

WWF promotes a Sustainable Blue Economy to ensure that the economic development of the ocean contributes to true prosperity and resilience, today and long into the future.

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WWF has been working on a number of strategies, including:

• Tackling overfishing

• Advocate for integrated ocean management

• Support small-scale fisheries and sustainable aquaculture

• Promote the value of services provided by ecosystems

• Manage the impacts of extractive industries (e.g. oil and gas, and seabed mining)

• Promote sustainable marine tourism