Get Involved You can learn more and explore new places when you join the Conservancy’s online community and build your own personalized nature page.   Aspen in fall color on the edge of the Routt National Forest, Colorado. Enlarge this photo For hundreds of years, people have equated the economic value of a forest almost exclusively with its timber value in the marketplace. But we are learning today to value our forests in new ways. Go Deeper Katahdin Forest, Maine Discover how the Conservancy protected this remarkable wilderness—which includes moose, bald eagles, landlocked arctic char, and black bears. Forest Legacy Partnership, Minnesota Learn how this partnership is fighting forest fragmentation in the land of 10,000 lakes. Wild Rivers Legacy Forest, Wisconsin Find out how we brokered Wisconsin's largest conservation land deal to save habitat for trout, songbirds and wolves.

Next time you’re admiring the beauty of the moon, consider this fact:

By 1929 — the end of the big-pine logging era in Minnesota — so much lumber had been removed from the state’s forests (more than 68 billion board-feet of pine alone) that it could have filled a train full of boxcars stretching from the Earth to the moon and halfway back.

The story of the world’s forests has always been a tale of seemingly limitless abundance and staggering exploitation:

• Forests are vast stores of natural resources, supplying people everywhere with fiber, food and fresh water.
• More than 1 billion people living in extreme poverty around the world depend on forests for their livelihoods.
• Nearly one-half of the world’s original forest cover is gone because of logging and development. Each year, 36 million acres of forest worldwide are converted for agriculture and development purposes.
• The conversion of U.S. forests to developed use reached 1 million acres each year in the 1990s — and over the next 25 years, an additional 44 million acres may be lost to development.

Valuing Forests for Their Services to Us

For hundreds of years, people have equated the economic value of a forest almost exclusively with its timber value in the marketplace. But we are learning today to value our forests in new ways.

The ecosystem benefits of forests are emerging as a potent measure of a forest’s worth, as well as a promising incentive for its conservation. A functioning forest can supply many tangible benefits:

• Fresh water;
• Timber and forest products;
• Jobs and income for local communities;
• Recreation and ecotourism opportunities; and 
• The storage of carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas that is the leading agent in climate change.

At Work in the World’s Forests

The Conservancy is working on projects and with partners around the world to develop innovative and effective approaches to forest conservation. And we're doing this for the benefit of people and nature.

For instance, our Global Forest Partnership works to advance responsible forest management practices, high-impact conservation transactions and public policies that protect, restore and manage the world's forests. For instance:

• Along with the Russian taiga and the Amazon basin, Canada’s 1.6 billion-acre boreal forest contains all that is left of the world’s frontier forests. It is being lost at a rate of 1 percent a year, similar to the rate of loss in tropical rainforests. But the Conservancy and many other groups are dedicated to the preservation of the North American Boreal forest and the natural and human communities it supports.
• In Bolivia, Brazil, China and Indonesia, the Conservancy and its partners are working on all aspects of forest conservation — from helping combat illegal logging and the trade of illegally harvested wood to supporting forest certification, ecotourism, conservation-friendly policies and indigenous land rights.

And to help end the loss of intact U.S. forests, the Conservancy works with many partners to help keep working forests working, from Maine to Georgia, South Carolina, Wisconsin and Minnesota.

Working forests are all about long-term sustainability for the people, plants and animals that depend on the forest. In working forests, core protected areas are surrounded by forestlands where timber harvests are guided by conservation management plans that ensure local livelihoods, economies and recreational opportunities continue.

As pressures on our forests grow, the next decades will determine whether they continue to help provide our air, our water and our livelihoods.

Nature picture credits (top to bottom, left to right): Photos © Mark Godfrey/TNC (Minnesota’s Superior National Forest); © Robert M. Griffith (Silvertip bear).