Towards Two Billion Trees

Within each tree are stories that span entire generations

Our native forests are home to some of the most unique wildlife and plants on Earth.

Today our precious trees are being lost at an unprecedented rate. Every year an estimated 500,000 hectares of native forests and woodlands are bulldozed across Australia. Worse still, without our urgent, collective action, an estimated 750 million native animals in Australia will die as a consequence of excessive tree-clearing by 2030.

To make matters worse, Australia is facing the most dangerous and catastrophic bushfires our nation has ever seen.

WWF are greatly saddened by the loss of life and homes, as well as the injuries suffered in the bushfires.

So far, more than 10 million hectares of Australian land have been burned. And while trees burn, our wildlife also suffers. It’s been estimated that as many as 8,400 NSW koalas have perished in these fires, many more are injured and countless are now homeless.

As Australia’s leading conservation champion, we believe a loss of biodiversity of this magnitude is unacceptable.

That’s why WWF-Australia has launched an ambitious 10-point plan for the next 10 years, Towards Two Billion Trees, designed to:

STOP excessive tree-clearing,

PROTECT our existing trees and forests, and

RESTORE native habitat that has been lost.

Read the Two Billion Trees report

However, we can’t achieve this alone - we need your help. Together with your support, and working with landholders, farmers, Traditional Owners, communities, businesses and government, we can make the changes needed to move Australia from a deforestation hotspot to a reforestation leader by 2030. Australia’s forests are our shared heritage and our legacy, and we all have a part to play in saving and restoring them for future generations of people and nature.

Adopt a tree

Help us protect and restore homes for koalas.

Why It Matters

Trees make the oxygen we breathe, the water we drink and the rain for our crops. They store carbon in their trunks and roots, and in the soil. They provide habitat for our unique wildlife. They bind the soil and provide shade, cooling our communities. They improve our health and well-being, and our neighbourhoods.

But our Australian native forests and woodlands are being cleared and destroyed at unprecedented and alarming rates. WWF’s 2018 Living Planet Report names Australia as one of 11 global deforestation hotspots, alongside Borneo, East Africa, the Congo Basin and the Amazon. Australia is the only developed country on the list.

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Kids playing in a tree © Didi Photos / WWF-Aus

Help Wildlife

It’s been estimated that 1.25 billion native animals have perished in the Australian bushfires, including koalas, kangaroos, wallabies, wombats, echidnas and more. As many as 8,400 koalas may have already perished in the fires in NSW alone, and these numbers continue to rise. These fires are a threat to people, as well as our wildlife.

Please check NSW Rural Fire Service, Emergency Western Australia, South Australia Country Fire Service, or Victoria's Country Fire Authority for emergency updates. We hope that everyone stays safe.

If you find injured wildlife in need of help, please contact your local wildlife rescue service. If in NSW call WIRES: 1300 094 737 and in Vic call WILDLIFE VICTORIA: 03 8400 7300.

Koala extinction in Eastern Australia

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Lone tree on a hill above fallow wheatfield, north of Warialda, northwestern New South Wales © WWF-Aus / Stuart Blanch

A New Deal for People and Nature

WWF-Australia’s national plan to save and grow an additional two billion trees by 2030 is a key step toward achieving our global goal to create a New Deal for People and Nature.

The New Deal seeks to protect and restore nature for the benefit of people and the planet – proposing no more loss of natural spaces or extinctions as well as halving the negative ecological impacts of production and consumption.

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Children plant koala food trees for the future © WWF-Aus / Veronica Joseph

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Koala joey (Phascolarctos cinereus) and mom eating Eucalyptus leaf © Shutterstock / dangdumrong / WWF

Towards Two Billion Trees

WWF-Australia’s national 10-point plan to save and grow two billion trees by 2030.

End deforestation and forest degradation by phasing out major destruction of mature forests and woodlands.
Conserve 30% of Australia’s land within the National Reserve System.
End native timber harvesting and transition the forest logging industry to plantations or Forest Stewardship Council-certified forestry.
Convince the federal government to lead states and territories in the transition.
Reforest 10 million hectares of native forests and woodlands.

Community Tree Planting at Cook Reserve Ruse, Campelltown © WWF-Aus / Leonie Sii

Store up to one billion tonnes of carbon in new forests and woodlands.
Invest in research and development to grow carbon farming opportunities, plus modelling to demonstrate rain farming benefits.
Cease deforestation for beef production.
Stabilise and reverse population declines of threatened species dependent on forests and woodlands.
Ensure the welfare of native wildlife is addressed.

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Read the report

Our partners

Our valued partners are helping us grow and save two billion trees over the next 10 years.