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Our News
Four million hectares of forest benefit from voluntary corporate action through WWF’s Forests Forward programme
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More than 50% of conservation area is in the Asia-Pacific region
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Epson is first Asian company to join
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New report highlights how the private sector can be a positive force for forests
Hanoi, Viet Nam – 24 June 2025 – WWF’s new Forests Forward Impact Report reveals that 26 leading companies from nine sectors are improving forest management or going beyond responsible sourcing to support forest conservation projects across the world.
Through ‘Forests Forward’, WWF’s flagship programme for corporate leadership on forests, WWF projects financed by private sector partners are helping conserve a total forest area of 1.3 million hectares in some of the world’s most vital and vulnerable landscapes through actions such as forest restoration. More than half of this total (approximately 700,000 hectares) are critical forest areas in the Asia-Pacific region.
An additional 2.7 million hectares of tropical forest globally are benefiting from improved forest management measures implemented by forest management companies participating in Forests Forward. Responsible sourcing commitments being implemented by partner companies are also translating to additional hectares of improved forest management across the globe.
Epson is the first Asian company to join the Forests Forward programme. This builds upon a three-year partnership between WWF-Japan and Epson, launched in 2023, which contributes 1.6 million Euros to WWF’s forest conservation and restoration efforts at several deforestation fronts worldwide, including in: Indonesia, the Greater Mekong, Australia, Brazil and Ghana.
Companies participating in WWF’s Forests Forward programme have considerable reliance on forests and the services and products they provide. They act upon voluntary commitments related to:
- Responsible sourcing: ‘Market’ participants – including leading retailers, manufacturers and other downstream users, such as IKEA, SIG and Sofidel – are delivering against responsible sourcing policies focused on avoiding deforestation and other unwanted sources, engaging suppliers and disclosing progress.
- Improving forest management: ‘Forest management’ participants – including timber producers in the Congo Basin, Interholco and CBG, and agroforestry cooperatives in the Peruvian Amazon, including Candela – are improving the management of tropical forest areas, 75% of which are Forest Stewardship Council® (FSC®) certified.
- Financing forest landscapes – 10 participant companies are supporting more than 20 landscape-level conservation projects with WWF, focusing on critical forests in the tropics. For example, HP Inc., IKEA, SIG and Sylvamo are providing significant financial contributions to (among others): forest landscape restoration in Brazil’s Atlantic Forest; working with local communities to restore forest corridors for jaguars in Mexico, Brazil and Peru; and helping advance responsible forest management with communities in Viet Nam. Their funding of these forest landscape projects extends and complements voluntary action on responsible sourcing through the programme.
“WWF’s Forests Forward partners are demonstrating that the private sector can be a force for nature. Together, our innovative approaches and positive impacts are proving that conserving forests is not only beneficial for the planet, but also a wise and sustainable business strategy.”
Scaling action
WWF’s Forests Forward programme, launched in 2021, builds upon 30 years of collaboration and innovation with the private sector to develop market-based solutions to forest loss and degradation. The programme now has 26 participants, with three new companies (Epson, WEPA and Nike) joining in early 2025 – representing an expansion into Asia, Germany and other forest-risk commodities (including natural rubber), respectively.
Alarming new data show record-breaking tropical forest loss in 2024, threatening the vital ecosystem services forests provide and worsening the impact of climate change. Since more than half of the world’s forests are managed wholly or partly for production, the private sector has a critical role in turning the tide on forest loss.
One of the key landscapes being conserved under the Forests Forward programme is the Central Annamites, spanning Viet Nam and Laos. This highly biodiverse region is not only a haven for unique wildlife but also a lifeline for subsistence communities and smallholder farmers who depend on the forest for their livelihoods.
Commenting on the importance of this landscape, Le Viet Tam, Forest Programme Manager, WWF-Greater Mekong, said: "The Central Annamites landscape is a biodiversity treasure and a vital source of life and livelihoods for millions of people. Protecting this landscape means preserving irreplaceable ecosystems and the services they provide, such as clean water, climate regulation, fertile soils, and natural protection against floods for people downstream. By partnering with the private sector, we can align economic growth with conservation goals, reducing deforestation, improving land-use practices, and promoting sustainable supply chains, therefore creating lasting impact. Together, we can shift business-as-usual toward nature-positive models."
With less than five years until 2030 deadlines for global goals on nature and climate, the Forests Forward Impact Report emphasises how critical the private sector is in filling finance gaps. It also outlines how forests play an outsized role in addressing the triple crises of climate change, biodiversity loss and economic equality.
This comes at a time of increasing awareness that risks to nature are risks to business and a recognition that companies that set science-based targets and help nature thrive help their businesses thrive. The report includes a call to action to other companies and sectors to step up their action for nature.
Tim Cronin, WWF’s Forests Forward Global Lead, said:
“Forests Forward aims to accelerate the transition from an economy built on the extraction, exploitation and degradation of forests to one thriving on conservation, stewardship and regeneration. If we're to halt and reverse forest loss once and for all, there needs to be a fundamental business imperative to do so. Our forward-thinking partners are helping us demonstrate and inspire others that this is possible. But we need more companies to follow, and we need the right policies and incentives to enhance the economic and business case.”
Quotes from Forests Forward partner companies:
Samuel Sigrist, CEO, SIG Group:
“We turned to WWF to work with us to go beyond our achievement of sourcing 100% of our paperboard responsibly as FSC-certified. Our partnership with WWF has unlocked huge potential for SIG to create positive impacts for at-risk forests and local communities globally. We want to show others how they can contribute best to supporting thriving forests by investing in landscapes.”
Gastón Vizcarra, President, Candela Perú:
"When we strengthen local value chains, we don’t just conserve forests, we also create decent jobs, empower Indigenous and rural communities, and bring real value to biodiversity. Investing in inclusive and sustainable projects is a commitment to a future where conservation and development go hand in hand."
Tom van Loon, Head of Sustainability, Interholco AG:
“We want to be leaders in responsible forest management in the Congo Basin, and, together with WWF, we are demonstrating that healthy standing forests can help biodiversity and people thrive.”
Ulf Johansson, Global Raw Material Manager, Inter IKEA:
“The whole forest industry must step up and share the wood they are using, where it is from and how the forest is managed. It is fundamental for sustainable development. For IKEA, it doesn’t end with our own supply chain. We are proud to have supported WWF's conservation efforts over 23 years in a total of 22 countries, including long-term support for critical landscape programmes and enabling innovative new approaches to improve forest management.”
Alex Michalko, Director of Climate & Responsible Sourcing, HP Inc.:
“Through our partnership with WWF, we are focused on large-scale landscape conservation that involves investing in innovative, durable forest conservation solutions and building partnerships with environmental organizations that prioritize the needs of local communities and ecosystems.”
NOTES TO EDITORS
Report highlights:
The report highlights how the private sector is showing leadership in forest management, responsible sourcing and financing forest landscape projects:> In Viet Nam, WWF and IKEA have encouraged a responsible wood supply while supporting local communities by advancing FSC certification of over 24,000 hectares of acacia plantations, with more than 3,000 plantation owners, many of them smallholders, joining in (p21).
> With the support of HP Inc., WWF and local Brazilian organizations have worked to restore more than 500 hectares of Brazil’s Atlantic Forest and spearheaded efforts to improve the protection of three national parks totalling 52,000 hectares (p19).
> Iconic global retailers such as IKEA, which in 2024 sourced wood that was 97% FSC certified or recycled, are raising the bar for transparency in sourcing, for example, by releasing a public global wood supply map – the first of its kind in the sector (p15).
> In Mexico, SIG is supporting WWF’s efforts to identify, restore and connect 750 hectares of critical forest corridors for jaguars; partner with local communities to improve forest management across 100,000 hectares; and help reduce human-wildlife conflict (p22).
> FSC-certified tropical forest concessionaires such as Interholco in the Congo Basin are providing refuge for large threatened mammals and increasing the value of responsible forestry through accounting for ecosystem services (p13).
> Local agroforestry associations in the Amazon (such as Manutata, RONAP and Candela, which produce Brazil nuts) are restoring degraded forests while supporting the livelihoods of local communities (p13).
> With support from Kimberly-Clark and International Paper, local partners are strengthening land retention to conserve forests by supporting family forest owners in the southeast US (p26).
> WWF Forests Forward tools and guides are helping companies understand impacts and source more responsibly (p28).
Forests Forward partners include:
Participating in the programme as of 17 June 2025. Partners with an asterisk* joined Forests Forward after 1 Jan 2025 and have not been included in the Forest Forward Impact Report’s collective impact statistics.Market partners:
- Costco Wholesale Corporation
- HP Inc.
- Inter IKEA Group
- International Paper Company
- Kimberly-Clark Corporation
- Nike, Inc.*
- PepsiCo, Inc.
- Procter & Gamble Co.
- SIG Group
- Seiko Epson Corporation*
- Sofidel Group
- Sylvamo
- WEPA*
- Williams-Sonoma, Inc.
- Agrobosques
- Bonus Harvest
- COOPSSUR
- Candela
- Gabon Wood Company (Compagnie des Bois du Gabon, CBG)
- Gabon Wood Industries (Bois et Scierie du Gabon, BSG)
- Interholco
- Maderacre
- Manutata
- RONAP
- The New Forests Company
© WWF-Greater Mekong / FGS Production
In Viet Nam, WWF and IKEA have encouraged a responsible wood supply while supporting local communities by advancing FSC certification of over 24,000 hectares of acacia plantations, with more than 3,000 plantation owners, many of them smallholders, joining in