Global deforestation slowed by 6.3% in 2021, but most countries are still falling short of their 2030 targets for stopping forest loss and degradation, a new report says.
“It’s a good start, but we are not on track,” said report co-author Erin Matson, a consultant at the Amsterdam-based advisory company Climate Focus. She cautioned that the analysis looks at only one year of data, with a clearer picture likely to emerge in successive years.
Forests store carbon that would otherwise contribute to global warming, and they physically cool some areas by creating clouds and humidifying air. Scientists largely agree that deforestation must come to a complete halt to limit global warming to between 1.5 and 2°C above pre-industrial levels. A “modest” 6.3% drop in deforestation—compared to the baseline average for 2018-20—falls short of the target world leaders set at last year’s COP 26 climate summit in Glasgow to reduce forest loss annually by 10% and end deforestation by 2030, reports the journal Nature.
Deforestation rates varied globally last year, according to the new analysis. While it slowed in tropical Latin America and Africa, the only region where it slowed enough to halt by 2030 was tropical Asia. Indonesia showed a significant reduction in forest loss—a 25% improvement in old-growth forest in 2021 compared to the previous year—largely due to government-led efforts to address the environmental harms of palm oil production. But there is concern this progress may eventually be reversed, since the country’s 2018 ban on new palm oil plantations expired last year.
Afforestation and reforestation efforts over the last two decades have created new forest area equal to the size of Peru, with 36 countries showing a net gain in forest cover. But the assessment found that “overall losses exceeded gains over the same period,” resulting in a global loss of 100 million hectares (one million square kilometres) of forest area.
Deforestation is largely driven by industries that clear trees to feed the global demand for commodities like beef, fossil fuels, and timber. But many governments have not introduced needed reforms to resist forest clearing, and they are failing to provide adequate financial support for forest protection and restoration, said Matson.
Forest conservation requires somewhere between US$45 billion and $460 billion annually, according to past assessments cited by the report. But current fiscal commitments average less than 1% of that amount and will need to increase more than 200-fold to reach the 2030 goal.
Matson said nations need to improve financing transparency by setting interim milestones and publicly reporting progress. But Constance McDermott, an environmental change researcher at the University of Oxford in England, cautioned against focusing too much on “estimates of forest cover change and dollars spent”. She recommended emphasizing social equity for Indigenous people and local communities instead.
More effort is needed to include these communities in discussions, support their own forest conservation efforts, and strengthen land rights, McDermott said. Otherwise, “global efforts to stop deforestation are more than likely to reinforce global, national, and local inequalities.”
The global forest assessment adds that Indigenous peoples and local communities are the most effective stewards and guardians of their forest territories. But they receive far less funding than they need to secure tenure rights and preserve forest ecosystems.
