Fast reading
- Over the past decade, various pledges and funding commitments have recognised the vital roles of forests and the devastating consequences of deforestation. Governments have pledged to restore forests, halt deforestation and channel global forest financing numerous times. Actual progress, however, has been limited.
- The key to success will be moving beyond pledges to implementation and achieving real world change by 2030. This needs to be underpinned by: supportive policies; financing solutions; a just transition; improved data; technological advancements; and commodity-specific solutions.
- There is reason to find hope in the future for halting deforestation. COP30, which will be hosted by Brazil in 2025, will place the Amazon and all tropical forests at the forefront of the climate and nature discussions.
Forests cover around one-third of the land area on our planet, and they also provide critical ecosystem services such as climate and water cycle regulation, and soil erosion prevention1. Forest degradation and fragmentation threaten the essential ecosystem services that underpin economies, disrupt delicately balanced carbon and water cycles, increase human-wildlife conflict, and increase human exposure to zoonotic diseases.2 3 4 According to the World Bank, around 1.6 billion people depend on forests for their livelihood and tropical forests host more than 80% of terrestrial species.5
In light of this, the current situation is alarming. Since the 1960s, over half of the tropical forests worldwide have been destroyed.6 In 2023 alone, total tropical primary forest loss amounted to 3.7 million hectares (Mha), the equivalent of losing almost 10 football fields of forest per minute.7
It is clear that progress is not happening at the speed that is needed. To move beyond the pledges made in last decade, both regulatory and voluntary action will be required to alter the current deforestation trajectory and halt its contribution to climate change and biodiversity loss.
Forests under fire: A call to action to end deforestation
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1 WWF, “Deforestation and Forest Degradation”
3 Michalski F. et al (2016) Human–wildlife conflicts in a fragmented Amazonian forest landscape: determinants of large felid depredation on livestock. Animal Conservation Vol. 9: 2, p179-188
5 The World Bank, “Forests Sourcebook” (2008)
6 IUCN, “Deforestation and Forest Degradation” (2021)
7 World Resources Institute, “Forest Pulse: The Latest on the World’s Forests” (April 2024)
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