Threat: Human-Induced Habitat Loss and Degradation
Harvesting (hunting/gathering)

 Solutions: PROTECTING THE DRY AND SPINY FORESTS
To maintain habitat for the lemurs

Current deforestation trends point toward catastrophic and irreversible losses of biodiversity and runaway climate change. With better governance and smarter land use, it would be possible to meet global demand for food and forest products without any further loss of forests between now and 2030, but urgent action is needed.

Actions to tackle deforestation will require new policies and laws, better implementation of existing laws, tough crackdowns on corruption, and economic opportunities for local communities, whether they be the 300 million people living in forests and the more than 1 billion directly dependent on forests.

WWF advocates Zero Net Deforestation and Forest Degradation (ZNDD) by 2020 as a target that reflects the scale and urgency with which threats to the world’s forests and climate need to be tackled.

The recent groundswell of commitments to deforestation-free production, commodity-sourcing and financing is a promising step towards achieving this target and sustainable supply chains for food, fibre and energy.

However, safeguards and emerging best practices should be incorporated in commitments and actions on deforestation-free production, sourcing and finance. These should help position deforestation-free as a critical aspect of sustainability, but not a proxy for, or superior trait to, full sustainability.

► Read our position paper on Deforestation-free production and finance