The world faces a “narrowing window” to restore forests essential for food security and resistance to the climate emergency, a United Nations report has warned.
More than 489m hectares (1.2bn acres) of forests have been cleared since 1990, while an even greater area is degraded, the world body said in a call for governments to make forest restoration a national priority.
The State of the World’s Forests report acknowledges recent steps forward in protection and tree planting around the globe but says action has not kept pace with commitments.
Over the past two decades, national, regional and global initiatives have promised to place more than 1bn hectares of land under restoration, but barely a fifth of that is actually being restored, the report by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) notes, saying: “Progress is uneven, and it is insufficient to meet growing global needs.”
Forests, which cover 4.14bn hectares (about a third of Earth’s land surface), store 714 gigatonnes of carbon and host up to 80% of the world’s terrestrial biodiversity. They also play an important role in regulating rainfall and in reducing hunger, with nearly one-third of the global population depending on them for livelihoods.
Threats are intensifying. Every year, about 127m hectares of forest are affected by fires, with further damage caused by insects, diseases and severe weather events. This is making forests ever more vulnerable, as it comes on top of pressure from farm expansion, the climate crisis, pollution and the extraction of fossil fuels and other resources.
“This widening gap between demand and sustainable supply highlights a structural imbalance that threatens both ecological integrity and the long-term viability of forest-based economies,” the report states.
It says remedial action on forests and other degraded ecosystems would benefit people, food security and the economy – with restoration of 1bn hectares estimated to generate $1.8tn in benefits each year.
Qu Dongyu, the FAO director general, said the report “makes clear that forest and landscape restoration is more than an environmental priority – it is a strategic investment in resilient agrifood systems and rural development”.
He said: “The window for action is narrowing, and delayed or poorly designed restoration will increase long-term costs, exacerbate inequalities and risk locking landscapes into unsustainable trajectories. Given the continued loss and degradation of forest ecosystems, as well as growing global demand for land-based products and services, there is an urgent need to scale up effective restoration.”