Forests are indispensable...

... as a habitat for animals, plants and people, they are a means of production, full of adventure and serve as reservoirs for water and as carbon sinks. About 1.6 billion people depend on forests to secure their livelihoods, 70 percent of all animal and plant species live in forests.

... and are still being destroyed

Every year people destroy 15 million hectares of forest all over the world, an area equalling 44 soccer fields every minute.

What are the causes?

Poverty and a steadily increasing world population, which constantly demands more land, leading to destructive forestry practices.

Political factors: lack of political will, illegal activities of huge dimensions, centralised decision-making that excludes the population, insecure land tenure and export-oriented agriculture.

Working towards better forest policies

The work of the advisory project "International Forest Policy" IWP (German acronym for Internationale Waldpolitik) starts with these political factors. IWP connects advisory services in partner countries with policy shaping at the international level.

Our success

IWP has helped to get the concept of national forest programmes generally accepted worldwide: all over the world, countries are being called upon to develop long-term strategies together with all stakeholders in order to achieve the sustainable use of their forests, thus preserving them for future generations.