Forests resources are crucial to the World Bank’s mission of eradicating poverty because of their contribution to the livelihoods of the poor, the potential they offer for sustainable economic development, and the essential global environmental services they provide.

• Poverty Reduction - More than half a billion people living in extreme poverty depend on forests for their livelihoods. Forests help create jobs, develop trade, and provide housing and other important resources for improving the lives of people.
• Economic Development - The forest product industry is a source of economic growth and employment, with global forest products traded internationally in the order of US$186 billion, of which developing countries account for 20 percent. In developing countries, forest based employment accounts for 32 million jobs.
• Preserving Global Environmental Services - Forests are home to about 80 percent of the worlds remaining terrestrial biodiversity. Forests also help maintain the fertility of the soil, protect watersheds and reduce the risk of natural disasters such as floods and landslides.

Learn more about the Bank's involvement in the sector: World Bank Issue Brief on Forestry .
Also read Frequently Asked Questions on REDD+, governance and logging.

 

Forests contain twice as much carbon as exists in the Earth’s atmosphere, and absorb about 15 percent of the planet’s greenhouse gas emissions. Meanwhile, destruction of forests through deforestation and forest degradation now contribute about 12-17% of the planet's greenhouse gases, a principal cause of climate change. 

The World Bank is testing opportunities to mitigate climate change and to protect standing forests through carbon finance, as well as exploring investments needed to make avoided deforestation work (given the other functions that forests serve) through the Forest Investment Program being developed under the Strategic Climate Fund.