Search Climate Insights Directory

This issue brief outlines a 'working forests' model for the southern United States, where public entities acquire forestland—either through fee simple purchase or conservation easements—to generate revenue from sustainable timber, recreation, and ecosystem services to fund conservation and provide community benefits.

This issue brief introduces a series on incentives, markets, and practices designed to promote the conservation and sustainable management of forests in the southern United States to preserve ecosystem services against various drivers of change.

This case study by the World Resources Institute examines the restoration of forests in the southern United States from 1920 to the mid-1960s, detailing the drivers, enabling conditions, and eventual decline of net forest gain.