Covering almost one third of the Earth’s land surface, forests offer a habitat to over 80 percent of all terrestrial species[reference: FAO and UNEP. 2020. [link: https://doi.org/10.4060/ca8642en The State of the World’s Forests 2020. Forests, biodiversity and people.] Rome.] and are key to preserving biodiversity. [target: 15.5] Forested watersheds and wetlands supply three quarters of all accessible freshwater in the world. [goal: 6][reference: World Bank. 2016. [link: https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/feature/2016/03/18/why-forests-are-key-to-climate-water-health-and-livelihoods Why Forests are Key to Climate, Water, Health, and Livelihoods.] Washington, DC.] Worldwide an estimated 300 to 350 million people live in or close to forests and largely depend on them for their livelihoods; over a billion people rely on forests for employment, forest products, and contributions to livelihoods and income.[reference: World Bank. 2016. [link: https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/feature/2016/03/18/why-forests-are-key-to-climate-water-health-and-livelihoods Why Forests are Key to Climate, Water, Health, and Livelihoods.] Washington, DC.] Many of those living in extreme poverty are highly dependent on forests for their livelihood.[reference: FAO. 2020. [link: https://www.fao.org/state-of-forests/en/ The State of the World’s Forests 2020.] Rome.] [goal: 1] Forests play a key role in the mitigation of climate change, removing an estimated 16 billion tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere annually,[reference: Harris, Nancy L., David A. Gibbs, Alessandro Baccini, et al. 2021. [link: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-020-00976-6 Global maps of twenty-first century forest carbon fluxes]. Nature Climate Change 11, 234–240.] equalling about half of the annual CO2 released from burning fossil fuels. [goal: 13]

Forest cover varies across the globe – some countries are predominantly forest while others have little or none. Over a quarter of global forest land is located in Russia, Brazil, Canada, and China. In 40 countries forest cover accounts for less than 10 percent of their total land area. The share of a country’s land area that is forested is monitored under [target: 15.1].

Forests can be divided into four groups: [emphasis: tropical, subtropical, temperate] and [emphasis: boreal forests]. Climatic conditions drive the types, levels of vegetation and biodiversity of forests. The amount of CO2 stored differs by forest type as well. As a result, the amount of greenhouse gases released into the atmosphere when forests are cleared varies considerably.

Forests are threatened by deforestation and degradation. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) [reference: FAO. 2018. [link: https://www.fao.org/3/I8661EN/i8661en.pdf Terms and definitions – FRA 2020. Forest Resources Assessment Working Paper 188]. Rome.] defines [emphasis: deforestation] as the permanent transformation of forested areas to other land uses, such as agriculture or construction. [emphasis: Degraded forests] have been damaged by human activities like logging or climatic and environmental events such as wildfires to the extent that their productive capacity is severely diminished. Degradation diminishes the quality of a forest’s vegetation and biodiversity, rather than reducing the overall forested area.

Losses and gains in forest land vary widely from country to country. Paraguay lost almost 30 percent of its forest between 2000 and 2020, mainly to convert land for cattle ranching. This contrasts with Vietnam, which implemented policies restricting logging and promoting reforestation, and increased forest area by 23 percent over the same period.

Deforestation describes the permanent loss of forests or tree cover to non-forest use due to human activities. It does not adequately account for temporary tree cover losses. An alternative measure is that of tree cover loss, calculated using satellite imagery and remote sensing. This metric measures the reduction in tree canopy cover. Some of these losses come from temporary natural factors such as wildfires, but also from human activities such as logging, urbanization or agriculture.[reference: Global Forest Watch. 2022. [link: https://data.globalforestwatch.org/documents/gfw::tree-cover-loss/about Tree Cover Loss].] These losses can be temporary or become permanent. Even when temporary, tree cover loss impacts forests’ ability to mitigate the effects of greenhouse gas emissions and support biodiversity.

Remote sensing techniques can be used to determine the causes of tree cover loss.[reference: Curtis, Philip G., Christy M. Slay, Nancy L. Harris, Alexandra Tyukavina, and Matthew C. Hansen. 2018. [link: https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aau3445 Classifying drivers of global forest loss]. Science 361, Issue 6407: 1108-11.] Commodity-driven agriculture, where forests are cleared to produce large-scale commodities, such as soy, palm oil, beef, pulp and paper, or for mining for energy and minerals, is [emphasis: permanent] and involves a change in how land is used. So is urbanization, where trees make place for urban settlements. Other drivers often cause [emphasis: temporary] tree cover loss. Shifting agriculture , where small-holder farmers clear land plots for temporary cultivation, often leads to temporary tree cover loss, as plots are abandoned after some time and forests can regrow. Forestry is the large-scale harvesting of trees, and trees are typically replanted in the same soil. Tree cover lost due to wildfires regrows as well.

The largest share of permanent tree cover loss occurred in the tropics, where the impact on biodiversity and the climate is the heaviest.

Commodity-driven clearing to produce agricultural products such as beef and soy, and for mining of energy products and minerals, is the main driver of tree cover loss in the tropical forests of Latin America (59 percent) and Southeast Asia (80 percent). Examples are palm oil production in Indonesia and soybean production and cattle ranching in Brazil. Commodity-driven deforestation is often permanent.

Shifting agriculture – clearing forests for temporary cultivation – drives around 94 percent of tree cover loss in the tropical forests on the African continent. Because primary rainforests typically take very long to recover, the detrimental impact on biodiversity of this practice is significant.[reference: Kadoya, Taku, Yayoi Takeuchi, Yushin Shinoda, et al. 2022. [link: https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-022-00434-5 Shifting agriculture is the dominant driver of forest disturbance in threatened forest species’ ranges] Communications Earth Environment 3, 108.]

Increased droughts and heat waves due to climate change have caused wildfires to become a more important driver of tree cover loss over the past decades with fires growing in frequency, intensity and magnitude. In 2021, more than a quarter of global tree cover loss was due to wildfires. Wildfires occur mainly in temperate and boreal forest in Northern America, Europe, Russia, and Australia.

Forests play an important role in fighting climate change. [emphasis: Carbon sequestration] is the process of absorbing carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere and storing it in the trees and soil. CO2 is one of the main greenhouse gases and the increasing concentration of these gases in the atmosphere causes the Earth to warm. [goal: 13] The capacity for global forests to absorb CO2 from the atmosphere is reduced by deforestation and forest degradation; with fewer trees to sequester CO2, that means higher concentrations of CO2 in the atmosphere.

In 2019, global human-caused greenhouse gas emissions were about 48 Gigatons (Gt) CO2e.[footnote: Besides CO2, other important greenhouse gases are methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O) and fluorinated gases (F-gases). Each of these gases has their own global warming potential (GWP), which is used to compare the effect of other gases to the effect of CO2. The emissions are expressed using the unit CO2e, which is the equivalent amount of CO2 that has a similar greenhouse gas effect. One gigaton (Gt) is equivalent to one billion metric tons.] Annually, forests sequester an estimated 16 Gt of carbon dioxide (CO2). This amounts to a third of annual CO2 emissions, or the combined CO2 emissions of China, the United States and Indonesia in 2019. However, when forest is lost, the CO2 stored in the trees and soil is partially emitted to the atmosphere.

To slow climate change, critical steps include protecting forests, reforestation and afforestation as well as restoring degraded forests. These measures can increase the amount of CO2 sequestered by forests and reduce emissions caused by deforestation and forest loss.

Deforestation and forest degradation are threats to biodiversity, as forests provide the habitat for more than 80 percent of all species of animals, plants and insects worldwide. [target: 15.5] seeks to reduce the degradation of habitats to halt the loss of biodiversity and extinction of species. The greatest threat to plants and animals is the destruction of their habitat.[reference: WWF. 2020. [link: https://www.worldwildlife.org/publications/living-planet-report-2020 Living Planet Report 2020 - Bending the curve of biodiversity loss.] Almond, R.E.A., Grooten M. and Petersen, T. (Eds). WWF, Gland, Switzerland.]

The Red List Index (RLI),[footnote: The [link: https://www.iucnredlist.org/assessment/red-list-index IUCN Red List Index (RLI)] summarizes the status of biodiversity in a country by assigning a score between 0 and 1 reflecting the extinction risks of species in that country: 1 means all species are classified as Least Concern and not at risk of extinction in the near future, while 0 indicates that all species in a country have become extinct. The RLI is helpful in tracking changes in threats to species, as it only takes into account category updates, and is not sensitive to the total number of species in the Red List of Threatened Species, which can change due to addition of new species, regardless of their status.] an official SDG indicator, is used to track the risk of extinction for species and monitor progress towards [target: 15.5]. Developments in the RLI show that biodiversity is facing increased pressure.

Protected areas can help conserve biodiversity and mitigate climate change.[reference: IUCN. 2023. [link: https://www.iucn.org/our-work/topic/effective-protected-areas Effective protected areas].] SDG indicators [indicator: 15.1.2] and [indicator: 15.4.1] measure the share of Key Biodiversity Areas (KBAs) that are protected to promote terrestrial, freshwater and mountain biodiversity.[footnote: Key Biodiversity Areas (KBAs) are areas that are identified as most important for species and the ecosystems they live in and contribute significantly to biodiversity. See [link: https://www.keybiodiversityareas.org/ Key Biodiversity Areas].] The share of KBAs that are protected has nearly doubled between 2000 and 2021, although the trend has slowed in recent years.

In December 2022, at the 15th Conference of the Parties (COP) to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity,[footnote: See [link: https://www.cbd.int/ UN Convention on Biological Diversity].] the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) was adopted. The GBF includes four long-term goals on improving biodiversity and 23 targets for urgent action to achieve these goals by 2030. The targets include reducing threats to biodiversity, and meeting people’s needs through sustainable means. [footnote: See [link: https://www.cbd.int/article/cop15-final-text-kunming-montreal-gbf-221222 COP15: Final text of Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework].] A monitoring framework similar to that for SDGs will be used for the targets.

The targets include a new 30x30 goal to preserve 30 percent of the Earth’s land, oceans, coastal areas and inland waters by 2030, a significant increase from current targets. To achieve these goals, targets also stipulate the reduction of government subsidies that are harmful to biodiversity and increasing funding from wealthier countries to poorer ones.