Why do we need trees?
Trees, woodlands and forests are essential to life on Earth.
They make life possible by:
- giving us oxygen to breathe and taking in carbon dioxide - the carbon cycle
- cleaning and recycling water - the water cycle
- storing and recycling nutrients
- forming soils and keeping them from being blown and washed away
- helping regulate and stabilise the climate
- being home to countless wild species – birds, bees, fungi, plants and mammals.
Are trees in danger?
More than one in three tree species worldwide faces extinction:
- For the first time, the majority of the world’s trees are now on the official IUCN Red List of Threatened Species™.
- At least 16,425 of the 47,282 tree species assessed are at risk of extinction.
That’s according to the first ever Global Tree Assessment published in 2024 as part of the IUCN Red List.
The risk to tree species is so critical that:
- Tree species face extinction in 192 countries around the world.
- Trees now make up more than a quarter of red-listed wild species.
- The number of threatened tree species outweighs by more than double all other threatened wild species combined - birds, mammals, reptiles and amphibians.
The loss of forests threatens the billions of people who rely directly on over 2,000 different tree species for food, medicines and fuel. As well as the thousands of other plant, fungi and animal species that live in and depend on trees and forests.
Climate threats to forests
Scientists now report how the effects of a changing climate compound those threats.
Forests face increasing climate-related stress amid growing demand for their products.
— the 2024 State of the World’s Forests report.
Climate-related stress adds to the threats from:
- logging and deforestation
- development threats
- industrial farming
- lack of proper care.
These have long been the main threats to our trees, woodlands and forests worldwide and in the UK.
The report finds:
- the consumption of wood is at record levels – about 4 billion cubic metres a year.
- 6 billion people, including 70 per cent of the world’s poorest people, rely on forests for their food, medicines, energy, and livelihoods.
The report also finds evidence that “Climate change is increasing the susceptibility of the world's forests to stressors such as wildfires and pests”:
- the frequency and intensity of wildfires being seen with climate change is increasing and spreading to areas of forest that have not been affected before.
- climate change also makes forests more vulnerable to invasive species, with insects, pests and disease pathogens threatening the growth and survival of trees and forests.
Diminishing gene pool
Another report adds that the decline in tree species is reducing the world’s genetic resources.
The 2025 State of the World’s Forest Genetic Resources says that:
- There are about 58,000 different species of tree.
- Around a third of all tree species are threatened reducing the genetic diversity of forests undermining their ability to remain healthy, provide for wild species and people who depend on them for food and other needs.
- Most threatened tree species are in tropical and subtropical zones – the world’s biodiversity hotspots.
- More common and widely distributed tree species tend to retain much of their genetic diversity, but rare and threatened species are losing theirs.
Exploitation by companies, including those in the UK, is part of the problem which is why we are calling for a new UK law to hold them to account.
Ending deforestation by 2030
Since 2021 the UK has persuaded over 140 world leaders, whose nations cover more than 90% of the world's forests, to sign up to a shared aim to halt deforestation by 2030.
The Glasgow Leaders’ Declaration (GLD) to halt forest loss was first signed at the UK-hosted climate talks in Glasgow in November 2021.
To end forest loss by 2030, the rate of deforestation needs to fall by well over 1 million hectares (Mha) every year. Instead, the Forest Declaration Assessment - which tracks how the GLD is faring - says “Deforestation rates have remained stubbornly high” since the declaration. For example:
- In 2023, the world permanently lost at least 5.4 Mha of forests.
- In 2024, estimated deforestation loss of forests was 8.1 Mha.
The Assessment states that such losses are, “leaving the world 63% off track from world leaders' pledge to halt deforestation by 2030”. If these levels of deforestation persist, governments and businesses will fail to halt permanent forest loss by 2030.
Crucially, the Assessment adds that “Finance flows mostly fund forest destruction”. That reflects that the overwhelming amount of money from governments and businesses still is still funding the activities and practices involved in deforestation more than they support the ending of deforestation.
For example, government are still putting extraordinary amounts of public money into subsidies for harmful farming practices and land acquisitions. In 2024, the Assessment put the sum at $409 billion a year, compared with just $5.7billion a year for forest protection.
The sums needed to sustain forests and deliver on the Leaders’ Declaration is in the range of $117-299 billion – a huge forests finance gap.
The state of the UK’s woods and trees
The UK’s trees and woodlands are also in difficulty.
The Woodland Trust’s latest State of the UK's Woods and Trees 2025 states that “UK woodland is in no fit state to withstand an escalating range of threats or fulfil its vital role in mitigating the combined climate and nature crises.”
The report states that:
- “…despite tree cover rising to 13.5%, woodland biodiversity continues to decline”
- “the woodland bird index was 37% lower in 2022 than in 1970 and has decreased by 15% in the last five years. This is largely due to our woodlands not being in good enough ecological condition.”
- “Woodlands are facing an escalating and interacting suite of threats, yet the necessary scale and urgency of action is lacking. Currently 121 introduced pests have been detected targeting our native trees in the UK and we're spending an estimated £919.9 million a year managing just six of them.”
- “Hanging over and exacerbating all these threats is the impact of climate change such as drought, wildfires and extreme weather events.”
