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Credit: Xi Zhinong/WildChina/FFI

Credit: Xi Zhinong/WildChina/FFI

Forests

Forests contain the majority of life on Earth, including a staggering 80% of the planet’s terrestrial species. These diverse environments provide warmth, shelter, water and food, and are havens for a multitude of plants and animals.

Many of the planet’s diverse forests are under threat, however, from a range of sources. The most prominent are all linked to human activity. Vast areas of forest are being lost to agricultural conversion, urbanisation, timber extraction and other forms of commercial exploitation.

Forest ecosystems are incredibly fragile, and any disruption to that system has a knock-on effect. At its most devastating, deforestation can result in a catastrophic loss of biodiversity.

What types of forest are there?

Broadly speaking, there are three types of forest: tropical, temperate and boreal.

Tropical forests are confined to a broad geographical band that straddles the equator and are undisputed havens for biodiversity. A single square kilometre of Amazonian rainforest can harbour up to 100 different tree species.

Temperate forests thrive in the highly variable seasons of the northern hemisphere; oak, elm, beech, cedar and maple trees are just a few species typical of these forests – all of which create beautiful colours as they shed their leaves in autumn.

Boreal forests, also known as taiga, grow in northerly latitudes and are dominated by evergreen conifers that can tolerate freezing temperatures and a blanket of snow for months on end.

Which species live in forests?

There are over 60,000 tree species in the world and natural forests can be made up of thousands of different species. The types of animals found in them vary depending on the type of forest and its location. Tropical forests, for example, harbour more exotic species such as monkeys, toucans, colourful frogs and iridescent butterflies. Meanwhile, temperate forests attract squirrels, martens, deer, wolves, wild cats, and nocturnal species such as badgers, bats and owls.

How do forests help to tackle climate change?

Forests play a crucial role in combating global warming by absorbing carbon dioxide that would otherwise end up in the atmosphere.

But, rapidly rising global temperatures are increasing the risk of catastrophic forest fires and are threatening to alter the composition of forests across the globe, with the more adaptable species thriving and others dwindling. This will upset the equilibrium of delicate forest ecosystems, further reducing their resilience to climate change and diminishing their carbon storage potential.

Female okapi photographed using a camera trap. © Fauna & Flora

Female okapi photographed using a camera trap. © Fauna & Flora

An elusive female okapi caught on one of our camera traps in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

One trillion tonnes

Over one trillion tonnes of carbon are stored in forests and forest soils.

Over 50%

Over 50% of the animals on Earth are found in rainforests.

4.03 billion hectares

Forests cover roughly 30% of the total land area on Earth.

    One trillion tonnes

    Over one trillion tonnes of carbon are stored in forests and forest soils.

    Over 50%

    Over 50% of the animals on Earth are found in rainforests.

    4.03 billion hectares

    Forests cover roughly 30% of the total land area on Earth.

Fauna & Flora’s work to protect forests

Fauna & Flora has been working in forest protection for many decades, focusing predominantly on tropical forests in areas such as the Amazon basin, Ecuador’s Chocó rainforest, Central America, the Congo Basin, Southeast Asia and West Africa, as well as fruit-and-nut forests in Central Asia.

Wherever we are working, we collaborate with communities to ensure they can participate actively in – and directly benefit from – forest conservation initiatives in their own backyards.

We also champion the need to take a species-level approach, in addition to an ecosystem-level one. Although one in six tree species is threatened with extinction, conservation efforts often fail to consider that trees may need conservation management in their own right.

Fauna & Flora team over looking Southern National Park. © Fauna & Flora

Fauna & Flora team over looking Southern National Park. © Fauna & Flora

Fauna & Flora team over looking Southern National Park, South Sudan.

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