Global forest goals report 2021: realizing the importance of forests in a changing world

The report shows progress in protecting the world’s forests and the people who rely on them is at risk due to the devastating impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and the escalating climate and biodiversity crises. The world had been making progress in key areas, such as increasing the global forest areas through afforestation and restoration. Many regions, in particular, Asia, Europe, and Oceania, appear to be on track to reach one of the key targets of the Global Forest Goals increasing forest areas by three percent by 2030. However, these advances are being threatened by the overall worsening state of the natural environment, including land degradation, pests and invasive species, fires, storms and droughts. Increasing rural poverty, unemployment and population growth, combined with greater competition for land with other sectors, including agriculture and urbanization, are also putting growing pressure on forests. The report comes at a time when economic contraction and disruptions to global trade and local commerce are continuing to impact the global workforce. A recent study by the UN Forum on Forests Secretariat in UN DESA, found that the pandemic has left forest-dependent populations facing job loss, reduced income, diminished access to markets and information, and women and youth, in particular, are experiencing a contraction in seasonal employment. Forest-dependent communities tend to be from marginalised and vulnerable groups, and many of them, including indigenous peoples, are finding themselves even further sidelined from socio-economic safety nets. Indigenous peoples and local communities, as well as returning migrants and urban workers, are now being pushed deeper into the woods to seek food, fuel shelter, and protection from the risks of COVID-19, placing additional stress on the ecosystem.