IUCN, the International Union for Conservation of Nature

Focus on Forests

17 April 2009 | News story

Forests are precious assets. They are home to much of the world’s biodiversity, store vast amounts of carbon, support the livelihoods of the world’s poorest people, provide fuel and building materials, protect our watersheds and offer a shield against extreme weather.

But our natural forests are being rapidly degraded. Agricultural expansion, infrastructure development, logging, climate change, fire and alien invasive species are all taking their toll. However, if we go a little deeper we often find that behind these immediate causes lie inadequate government policies that promote market failure and corruption and fail to tackle poverty.

Efforts to conserve the world’s forests, like every other conservation effort, need to adapt to prevailing social and economic realities. Forests are part of wider landscapes that are important to people, agriculture and industry. Forest conservation must therefore understand the multiple perspectives and competing demands and that certain trade-offs will have to be made.

It is in these areas that the knowledge and expertise of the IUCN is strongest. Working together with communities, government agencies, NGOs and businesses, the Union supports the development of locally-driven and sustainable outcomes that improve forest management and restore degraded forests for the benefit of people and biodiversity.

This month we take a look at the challenges facing forest conservation, outline some success stories and interview people within IUCN who are working to secure a future for the world’s forests.