(@ Asociación de Forestería Comunitaria Utz Che)
In 2014, the New York Declaration on Forests (NYDF) was adopted as a political declaration calling for the end of natural forest loss and the restoration of 350 million hectares of degraded landscapes and forest lands by 2030. It was signed by nearly 200 governments, multinational companies, indigenous peoples, and civil society. Served by a dedicated multi-stakeholder platform to re-invigorate political endorsement and facilitate collaboration across stakeholders, the NYDF stands as one of the world’s most comprehensive multi-stakeholder frameworks for forest action.
While the Declaration fostered action and ambition in some countries and two of its goals were accomplished, it's intermediate goal to halve deforestation by 2020 was not met, and deforestation rates around the globe continue to rise. In response, the NYDF Global Platform launched a participatory “refresh” process in 2020, renewing the Declaration to highlight the urgency of reversing deforestation and accelerating collective action towards meeting the NYDF goals.
In 2021, at the UNFCCC COP26 in Glasgow, leaders from around the globe announced the Glasgow World Leaders Declaration on Forests and Land Use, a commitment aligned with NYDF to end global deforestation by 2030. This was endorsed by over 140 countries, covering roughly 90 percent of global forests. The Glasgow Leaders Declaration reaffirms the need for swift forest action and strengthened the political commitment to meet the 2030 target.
From New York to Glasgow and beyond, governments, companies, indigenous peoples and civil society agree: the climate and biodiversity crises cannot be addressed without halting and reversing deforestation in this decade.
Adjusting its vision to the new political context of the Glasgow Leaders Declaration, the newly named Forest Declaration Platform has now broadened its scope to support public and private stakeholders to take action on forest pledges made in New York in 2014, Glasgow in 2021 and beyond. Other related pledges and campaigns like ‘Turn the Tide on Deforestation’ strengthen and mobilize the political will needed to meet the common 2030 commitment. The enabling support of knowledge and technical assistance platforms such as the UN-REDD Programme are critical to ensuring progress is made at the country level to halt deforestation.
How it works:
The Forest Declaration Platform fosters political ambition, scales up and accelerates action and enables accountability to meet the world's 2030 forest goals.
- Enables Accountability by independent and critical civil society voices on progress towards global forest pledges through the Forest Declaration Assessment
- Scales up and accelerates action by providing support and delivery mechanisms at regional and national levels
- Fosters political ambition of global leaders through increased collaboration and action
How it's assessed:
In light of the broad field of forest pledges and the urgency of driving real action toward the 2030 forest targets, the Forest Declaration Assessment is expanding its comprehensive assessment process to assess additional commitments beyond the NYDF. The assessment framework will focus on the following four themes:
- Overarching goals for forest conservation and restoration. Halting and reversing forest loss and land degradation by 2030.
- Sustainable production and development. Eliminating deforestation from agricultural commodities and significantly reducing it from infrastructure and extractive industries.
- Forest finance. Significantly increasing finance and investments to align financial flows with international forest goals.
- Governance. Strengthening forest governance, transparency and rule of law to recognize the rights of indigenous peoples and local communities.
The Forest Declaration partners look forward to supporting the advancement of the 2030 forest goals. Visit forestdeclaration.org for more information.
