Forest Conservation:
14 facts you need to know

If we don’t conserve ​forests, how will we clean the air, store carbon and purify water — for the entire planet?

1. ​
   © Kyle Obermann

   Camper’s delight
   Forests — including mangroves, tropical forests, boreal forests and more — cover 30 percent of the Earth’s land surface. That’s more than the total area of Russia, Canada and the United States combined.

   
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2. ​
   © CI/Haroldo Castro

   One in five breaths
   Trees convert carbon dioxide into oxygen. More than 20 percent of the world’s breathable oxygen is produced in the Amazon rainforest alone.

   
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3. © CI/Karen Mikosz

   Four people, every year
   In 50 years, a tree can release about 6,000 pounds of breathable oxygen, enough for about 4 people per year.

   
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4. © CI/Sterling Zumbrunn

   Living filters
   Forests next to rivers and streams act as “living filters” by absorbing sediments and storing and transforming excess nutrients and pollutants — reducing nitrogen concentration by up to 90 percent and phosphorous by as much as 50 percent.

   
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5. © CI/Haroldo Castro

   Unmatched biodiversity
   Tropical forests cover less than 7 percent of Earth’s land mass but are home to about 50 percent of all living things on the planet.

   
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6. © CI/Katrin Olson

   Critical cancer drugs
   120 prescription drugs sold worldwide have been derived directly from plants found in rainforests, from the cancer drug vincristine to theophylline, which is used to treat asthma.

   
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7. © CI/Stephen Richards

   Nature = 30% of the solution
   Tropical forests are remarkably effective at carbon sequestration — providing up to 30% of the global action needed to stop climate change. Despite this, of all funding devoted to stopping climate change, nature-based solutions receive only 2% of it.

   
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8. © CI/François Tron

   50 million people
   Forests are home to 50 million indigenous people around the world, more than the populations of Tokyo, Mexico City, London, New York City and Cairo combined.

   
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1. © Conservation International

   Indigenous peoples protect vital forests
   Worldwide, forests that are under stewardship of indigenous people contain more than 55 trillion metric tons of carbon — more than 1,200 times the amount of carbon humans emit into the atmosphere yearly.

   
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2. © CI/Bailey Evans

   Successful stewardship
   Rates of deforestation inside forests legally managed by indigenous peoples and communities are two to three times lower than in other forests.

   
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3. © CI/Daniel Rothberg

   ​ A significant portion of income
   Forests make up more than 20 percent of household incomes in developing countries.

   
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4. © Conservation International

   1 billion people.
   More than 1 billion rural people depend on forests to some extent, and over 90 percent of people living in extreme poverty depend on forests for all or part of their livelihoods. ​​​

   
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5. © CI/Russell A. Mittermeier

   Conserving forests requires animals
   Up to 90 percent of trees and plants in tropical forests rely on animals to propagate their seeds — but human activity has put these animals at risk and reduced their numbers in tropical forests by as much as half.​​​

   
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6. © CI/Sterling Zumbrunn

   Better to protect mature trees
   An acre of mature rainforest sequesters more carbon than newly planted or growing trees. One study found that, on average, an acre of mature rainforest stores 34 tons of carbon dioxide more than an acre of growing rainforest over a 20 year period.

   
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BONUS FACT

7. © CI/Russell A. Mittermeier

   Thank you, Norway
   Norway is the first country to stop clear-cutting its boreal forests. Tropical forests are less fortunate: At current rates of deforestation, Earth’s rainforests could be completely gone in 100 years.​​​

   
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Our Solutions

Finding nature-based solutions that protect forests and support the well-being of humans is critical — Conservation International (CI)’s global forest strategy can help communities adapt to climate change impacts; produce better agricultural yields that prevent more deforestation; and support stronger and more sustainable livelihoods.

In Amazonia, CI is working to achieve zero net deforestation by 2020. And in communities around the world, CI is implementing REDD+ projects that encourage communities to stop the degradation and deforestation of fo​rests in exchange for training, investment and other benefits.