Posted on October, 14 2024

In 2021, 145 government leaders committed to work collectively to halt and reverse forest loss by 2030 as part of the Glasgow Leaders Declaration on Forests and Land Use. Just five years away from that deadline, the picture is bleak: 6.37 million hectares of forest were permanently lost around the world in 2023, according to the Forest Declaration Assessment. The world is off track to achieve the goal of eliminating gross deforestation by 2030. The new Living Planet Report shows that some of our planet’s most critical forests, such as the Amazon, are on the verge of tipping points, which would have severe repercussions globally.

Ahead of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) conference (COP16) and the climate change conference (COP29), WWF is calling on a significant increase in finance and investment for forests, greater accountability in tracking, monitoring and reporting of pledges as well as setting ambitious national targets, and swift implementation of existing commitments.

The WWF Expectations for Forests at COP16 and COP29 paper outlines our call to action for forests, with recommendations on actions needed by the public and private sector to scale up action.