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Forest Conservation

The Role of Forests

Forests are essential to the health and quality of life of people everywhere.

Tina Buijs, TNC contract park guard supervisor studies moss covered trunks of rare old Alerce trees, (Fitzroya cupressoides), World's second oldest living species found in a small grove of old-growth trees still standing in The Nature Conservancy's Reserva Costera Valdiviana, (Valdivian Coastal Reserve), a 147,500 acre site comprising temperate rainforest and 36km of Pacific coastline south of Valdivia, Chile. © Mark Godfrey/The Nature Conservancy

ground dwelling frog © Mark Godfrey

From rainforests, to pine woods, to the boreal forests of the northern latitudes, forests blanket nearly one-third of Earth's land mass. They harbor in their shady depths an astounding variety and abundance of life.

Forests renew the air we breathe and moderate our global climate by absorbing carbon from the atmosphere and storing it over the long term. They play a major role in recycling atmospheric moisture and stabilizing soils. Forests, quite simply, help sustain all life on Earth.

Forests are essential to the health and quality of life of people everywhere. They give us fiber, food, fuel and fresh water; in fact, about two-thirds of people worldwide depend for all or some of their water on supplies from forests. And more than 1 billion people living in extreme poverty around the world depend on forests for their livelihoods.

What The Nature Conservancy Is Doing

The Nature Conservancy is committed to conservation that fosters healthy forest ecosystems for people and nature. Our approach to forest conservation integrates compatible economic development with responsible forest management practices to ensure the longevity and rejuvenation of forests around the globe.

March 04, 2011