World Bank/WWF Alliance for Forest Conservation and Sustainable Use
Well managed natural forests almost always provide higher quality water, with less sediment and
fewer pollutants, than water from other catchments
Some natural forests (particularly tropical montane cloud forests and some older forests) also
increase total water flow, although in other cases this is not true and under young forests and some
exotic plantations net water flow can decrease
Impacts of forests on security of supply or mitigating flooding are less certain although forests can
reduce floods at a local headwater scale