Demand for land, food, energy and timber products is putting ever-increasing pressure on our forests and the people that depend on them. Even with increased recycling, reuse and efficiency, the amount of wood we take from forests and plantations each year may need to triple by 2050 if the current trend continues. 

The resources and services forests provide are invaluable – and undervalued. More than ever, we need innovative solutions and action to ensure that forests continue to provide critical ecosystem services while meeting the growing demands of humanity.

Saving our forests must be a shared global priority. Although progress has been made to implement global sustainability commitments, action is still lagging behind.  

WWF works around the globe with companies, governments, investors, civil society associations and Indigenous People and local communities to conserve forests, from advocating for protected areas and responsible forest management and trade, to restoring forests and halting deforestation and forest degradation.

Through engagement on the ground, innovation, sharing and advocacy, WWF aims to drive sustainable production at a time when nature and the services and resources it provides are under unrelenting pressures.

Forests Forward advocates for a transformed forest sector that values forests. An evolution of the Global Forest & Trade Network (GFTN) and New Generation Plantations platform (NGP), Forests Forward aims to ensure that the world’s growing demand for wood can be met through sustainable forest management, including a new generation of well-managed plantations. But WWF also wants to highlight, maintain and enhance the many other services that forests provide. Working on the ground in forests of different types, Forests Forward brings in science, policy, businesses and communities to identify, support, scale and demonstrate sustainable solutions and drive change;

• demonstrating how well-managed forests benefit people and nature
• making the case for investment in improved forest management and credible certification for all types of forests
• improving and increasing global trade connections for wood products from well-managed forests
• connecting supply chains to landscapes and initiatives to strengthen their sustainability
• supporting sustainable livelihoods for people living and working in forest landscapes.

Find out more about Forests Forward here. 

Partnerships play a key role in WWF's efforts to influence the course of conservation. Among WWF´s partnership approaches are engagements with businesses who have the greatest potential to reduce the most pressing threats to the diversity of life on Earth and together find solutions to conservation challenges such as deforestation, forest deterioration and degradation, food and water scarcity and climate change. 

As part of our goal to transform the global forest sector, WWF engages with a number of companies. These include:

• IKEA, to promote responsible forest management, good governance, and transparency in timber product trade. 
• The Mondi Group, to promote environmental stewardship in the packaging and paper sector. 
• HP Inc., to address the impacts on forests from printing with HP printers. Together, WWF and HP are restoring, protecting, and improving the management of nearly 1 million acres of forest landscapes. The WWF-HP partnership will also help combat climate change and nature loss through investments in high-integrity nature-based solutions.

The changes we want to see in the world can only come about through the efforts of many actors. WWF engages with innovative companies and organisations that are making sustainability a top priority.