Balancing Forests and Development

The 2020 NYDF Progress Assessment reports that large-scale, top-down infrastructure and extractive projects continue to threaten intact tropical forests with minimal benefit to local communities. Despite the adoption of environmental safeguards by financial institutions and the mobilization of Indigenous peoples, systemic barriers—including limited corporate transparency, slow government implementation of forest policies, and continued financial flows to destructive activities—hinder progress. The report argues that meeting forest and climate goals requires a fundamental economic shift away from exploitation toward alternative development models.

• Large-scale infrastructure and extractive industry development is accelerating in tropical forest regions, driven by growing demand for fossil fuels and mined minerals, which threatens biodiverse forests.
• Top-down development projects generally fail to invest in sustainable local economies or provide significant benefits to the communities they affect.
• While some governments have aligned national policies with forest goals, the actual implementation and enforcement of these programs are slow, and some existing environmental protections are being removed.
• Financial institutions and donors have established social and environmental safeguards, but implementation is flawed, and funding for poverty alleviation that reduces deforestation remains very small compared to non-forest-aligned investments.
• Progress is obstructed by systemic barriers, including a lack of transparency among governments and companies, power imbalances in decision-making, and the Global North's reliance on commodities linked to deforestation.

APA

Forest Declaration Assessment (2020). Balancing Forests and Development. https://forestdeclaration.org/resources/balancing-forests-and-development-2020-nydf-executive-summary/

Chicago

Forest Declaration Assessment. Balancing Forests and Development. 2020. https://forestdeclaration.org/resources/balancing-forests-and-development-2020-nydf-executive-summary/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Forest Declaration Assessment |title=Balancing Forests and Development |date=2020 |url=https://forestdeclaration.org/resources/balancing-forests-and-development-2020-nydf-executive-summary/ |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{forestdeclarationassessment2020balancing, author = {{Forest Declaration Assessment}}, title = {{Balancing Forests and Development}}, institution = {Forest Declaration Assessment}, year = {2020}, url = {https://forestdeclaration.org/resources/balancing-forests-and-development-2020-nydf-executive-summary/}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }