Keeping Forests is a collaborative force of working to solve some of the most pressing challenges facing Southern Forests today. We are a diverse coalition of business leaders, conservation experts, forest advocates, scientists and landowners committed to one clear goal: ensuring that Southern Forests thrive for generations to come.
The U.S. South is home to 245 million acres of forest, an ecosystem vital to the region’s biodiversity, climate resilience, and local economies. However, these forests face unprecedented challenges. Rapid urbanization, population growth, and the effects of climate change threaten the future of forests. At the heart of this challenge are the private landowners who steward 86% of these lands. In the face of dwindling forest product markets, these landowners find themselves without viable economic incentives to continue to keep their forests as forests.
That’s where Keeping Forests comes in. We understand that conserving Southern Forests requires market-driven solutions that support landowners and recognize the vast ecological, economic, and societal benefits that forests provide. We take on the challenges that none of our partners can take on alone or at the scale of the 13-state geography that the U.S. South represents.
Since 2016, we’ve been focused on creating replicable and scalable strategies that were collaboratively developed by our multi-sector partnership. We’re on a mission to catalyze market-driven forest conservation efforts that sustain Southern Forests, their full range of values, and the livelihoods of the private landowners that steward them. Everything we do is rooted in a systems-based approach that recognizes the interconnectedness of ecosystems, markets, and people. We cannot solve the challenges in front of us by addressing one issue or one forest at a time; we must create comprehensive solutions that work at multiple scales.
Through innovative partnerships, cutting-edge strategies, and a commitment to collaboration, we’re working to ensure that Southern Forests remain a vital part of our national ecosystems and economies.
What We Do: Market-Driven Solutions for Southern Forest Conservation
Healthy forests in the U.S. South cannot exist without healthy markets. That’s why our work focuses on creating the right conditions for forest landowners to thrive economically. That’s how we will ensure that forest can thrive ecologically. Our work is guided by three core strategies:
- Promote and Expand Southern Forest Product Markets
- Foster Emerging Ecosystem Service Markets
- Cultivate a Network of Forest Champions and Leaders
Each of these strategies is designed to tackle the unique challenges facing Southern Forests, and together, they build a sustainable future for both forests and the people who depend on them.
Southern Forest Product Markets
Developing a Brand that Balances Sustainability and Growth
A major focus of our work is developing the Southern Forest Products brand, which emphasizes the critical role of southern working forests in balancing environmental stewardship, economic growth, and the livelihoods of the landowners who manage them. Southern Forests contribute 60% of America’s timber harvest, and their role in climate mitigation, biodiversity, and water filtration is essential. However, the story of these forests has often been overlooked or misunderstood.
Through the Southern Forest Products brand, we aim to reposition Southern Forests as a model of sustainable forest management. This brand not only enhances the reputation of southern products but also helps our partners succeed by reducing the need to “sell the South” while promoting their own missions. By aligning sustainable practices with a strong market identity, we enable our partners to demonstrate how their goals contribute to a larger vision for forest health and economic vitality in the region.
Innovation Challenges that Create New Forest Product Market Opportunities
Innovation is central to our approach at Keeping Forests. One of our key initiatives is to develop and host innovation challenges that crowdsource new applications for both timber and non-timber forest products, creating new market opportunities for forest landowners.
One of the most pressing issues we are addressing is the lack of markets for small-diameter trees. These trees have traditionally been harvested for pulp and paper use, but a number of factors – like the digital transformation away from paper – have decreased demand. Through collaboration with subject matter experts, we are refining the problem statement around this challenge and preparing for an innovation workshop. The goal is to develop actionable solutions that unlock new market potential for these underutilized resources. By May 2025, we plan to introduce these challenges to a wider array of partners and funders, culminating in a comprehensive effort to expand market opportunities for landowners across the South.
These innovation challenges are designed to not only develop new products but also to showcase how Southern Forests are a hub for cutting-edge solutions in sustainable development. The insights and applications we generate through these challenges will help solidify the Southern Forest Products brand as a leader in sustainability and innovation.
Emerging Markets
A Watershed Approach to Compensating Landowners for Ecosystem Services
Keeping Forests is pioneering a Payment for Ecosystem Services (PES) framework that connects Southern Forest landowners with corporations that rely on the critical ecosystem services these forests provide.
We know the critical roles that forests play in providing clean and abundant water. Building off of that, we are taking a watershed approach to this work. We recognize that watersheds are key geographies where tangible outcomes can be measured, including the ecosystem service benefits that forests provide to water quality and quantity. This approach was informed by lessons in our pilot initiative in the Saluda River Basin (South Carolina).
Using decision-support tools, we can pinpoint high-potential watersheds and opportunities for collaboration between landowners and corporations. These tools help us analyze the ecological and economic value of ecosystem services, allowing us to identify where corporate investments can have the greatest impact.
In addition to identifying opportunities, we are exploring the development of a singular water fund model, which would streamline transactions between landowners and corporate entities. This fund would create a centralized mechanism for compensating landowners for maintaining the health of watershed ecosystems, ensuring sustainable forest management while aligning corporate investments with environmental stewardship.
Through this approach, we are not only providing financial incentives for landowners but also building partnerships that ensure long-term sustainability and mutual benefit for both forests and the businesses that depend on them.
Champions and Leaders
Amplifying the Message of Southern Working Forests
Our third strategy is not market-based, but focuses on addressing a challenge that the forestry sector and conservation community face:
Broad messaging campaigns don’t resonate with audiences who are disconnected from forestry issues or don’t see them as relevant.
Also, big marketing campaigns are extremely expensive. There are other entities out there with more resources to focus on this approach. Instead, we’re focused on building a network of trusted leaders—businesses, NGOs, academics, and policymakers—who can deliver unified, compelling messages about the value of southern working forests.
Through our Forest Champions and Leaders initiative, we work with these leaders to create content that connects the benefits of working forests to issues that their audiences already care about, such as climate resilience, biodiversity, and economic prosperity.
One key aspect of this effort is producing a series of videos that tell human-centered, on-the-ground stories. These stories focus on the eight core Forest Values: water, biodiversity, carbon capture, fiber, human health, recreation, culture and heritage, and forest economies. By sharing these stories through trusted voices, we are able to reach new audiences and create a broader base of support for forest conservation and sustainable management.
Scalable Solutions for a Sustainable Future
Everything we do at Keeping Forests is built around the idea that Southern Forests are integral to the future of both the region’s economy and the environment. Our efforts, whether through branding, innovation challenges, or market-based ecosystem services, are designed to create scalable solutions that address the needs of all stakeholders—landowners, businesses, conservationists, and communities.
By aligning ecological health with economic opportunity, we’re creating a model that ensures the long-term sustainability of southern working forests. Through collaboration, innovation, and strategic partnerships, Keeping Forests is leading the charge to build a future where Southern Forests continue to thrive, providing critical benefits to society while sustaining the livelihoods of those who care for them.
The southeastern United States boasts a lush, verdant landscape that has played a pivotal role in America’s forestry and timber logging industry. This region, encompassing Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina, Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia, and Puerto Rico, is rich in diverse forest ecosystems that have historically served as a significant economic and environmental resource. The story of forestry and timber logging in this area is a complex narrative of growth, challenge, and adaptation, highlighting the intersection of natural bounty and human endeavor.
