IKEA and WWF
Our largest forest partnership is with WWF. Working side by side for over twenty years, covering nineteen locations, our global partnership has been instrumental in increasing transparency across wood supply chains. We act together to preserve and enhance biodiversity by strengthening national forest policies, legislation and governance structures, and improving forest management practices. We also work to empower smallholders and indigenous communities exercising forest stewardship to receive increased benefits. Leading by example, through cooperation and common goals, we demonstrate that it is possible to produce efficiently at scale while conserving nature, enhancing biodiversity and fairly benefiting communities.
So far, the partnership has led to:
- Strengthening of forest policy, improving forest management practices and increasing FSC-certified forests by 36 million hectares, to drive market transformation towards responsibly sourced wood in Europe and Asia
- The mapping of nearly all known virgin and old-growth forests in the Carpathian regions of Bulgaria, Romania, Slovakia and Ukraine, and also in Russia, where procedures to ensure protection of the old-growth forest are now in place
- Support of responsible forest management across 78,874 hectares in Laos, Cambodia, Thailand and Vietnam
In the coming years it will also focus on:
- Testing, implementing and promoting a landscape approach to enhance local biodiversity in Russian forests
- Maintaining habitats of diverse species, for example orangutans, and resilience to climate change of tropical forests in South East Asia. Within Indonesia, this project will contribute at least 20,000 hectares of FSC-certified forests that are sustainably and equitably managed for the benefit of local communities
- Improving legality and traceability in sustainable timber supply chains in the Greater Mekong, allowing for better linkages to export markets in the EU, US and Japan
- Generating greater market demand for responsibly sourced forest products by raising awareness among the public and corporations, while engaging governments and financial institutions to increase incentives for sustainable forest management
- Ensuring that forest landscapes contribute to biodiversity conservation and restoration, and deliver ecosystem services, while storing carbon and strengthening climate resilience
Together with global partners, we will continue to work towards making responsible wood sourcing the industry norm, contributing to building resilient forest landscapes and improving biodiversity.
