Program on Private Forests

57% of America's forests are privately owned. These forests cover 427 million acres, which represents 19% of the total land area of the U.S. Through our Program on Private Forests, we work on a variety of issues that are important to the millions of individuals, families, businesses, and investment organizations that serve as stewards of the nation's vast private forests.

The conversion of forests -- mostly for property development -- is a growing problem. A key focus of the Program on Private Forests is to help slow the loss of forest cover and wildlife habitat by developing new economic incentives to encourage private landowners to engage in conservation. To this end, we work on new financial and policy tools that will allow private landowners to keep their forest in forest.