To stop deforestation, WWF uses several approaches, some of which are summarized below. To bring each approach to life, we work with companies, communities, government leaders, academics, and others.
To address infrastructure-related drivers of deforestation, we seek to influence the financing of roads, mines, and other infrastructure in the developing world, largely by ensuring that the value of forests are factored into decisions about where to create or expand infrastructure.
Most conservation areas (most which are parks that are referred to as "protected areas") are not well-funded. As a result, they are not well-managed—an issue that often leads to deforestation. One way to address this challenge is to use a financial approach for conservation known as Project Finance for Permanence (PFP). Through this approach, donors from the public and private sectors contribute money to create a fund that will support the proper management of protected areas in a region—some of the funding can also be used to create new protected areas and expand existing ones, but the majority of funding is for management. WWF's Earth for Life initiative has already completed two PFP projects and strives to complete several more over the coming years.
Humans have used forests for fuel for thousands of years, and 2.6 billion people today still use biomass—mainly wood and charcoal—for cooking. WWF works to promote bioenergy from scrap wood, oil and fats, sugar and starch crops, residues and wastes, and even algae to reduce reliance on forests and decrease greenhouse gas emissions. WWF’s vision is that by 2050, 100% of the world’s energy will come from sustainable, renewable sources, including bioenergy.
Effective policies help stop deforestation. That's why WWF helps countries, like Myanmar and Belize, assess the value of their natural resources and the services they provide, such as forests that absorb carbon and provide habitat for endangered wildlife. Decision makers use the assessments in a variety of ways, including promoting a green economy approach—one in which the sustainable use of natural capital is integrated into a country's new plans and policies for the economy, agriculture, energy, and more.
A key part of the solution is marking good decisions from the forest floor to the sales floor. That's where WWF's Global Forest & Trade Network-North America (GFTN-NA) program comes into play. The program engages companies, trade associations, public procurement entities and institutions across North America that are committed to responsible production and sourcing of forest products. It is a network made up of a diverse group of people: forest managers, forest product producers, forest product buyers, and many more.
