The world stands to lose 230 million hectares of forest by 2050 with drastic consequences for the climate, biodiversity and the global economy, the World Wildlife Foundation said on Wednesday. “Those responsible — policy-makers and industry — are sawing away at the branch we’re all sitting on,” WWF’s head of forests, Philipp Goeltenboth, said in a statement, noting that the area projected to be lost is 27 times the size of Austria.