Forest rights and governance 2023

This report examines the state of global forest governance, highlighting the critical link between strong legal frameworks and the ability to curb deforestation. It evaluates progress across protected areas, national policy reforms, industrial logging practices in developed nations, trade regulations, and the legal recognition of Indigenous Peoples' and local communities' land rights.

• While the global coverage of protected areas has grown over the last twelve years and is expected to increase following December 2022 commitments, some countries are actively downgrading, downsizing, or degazetting these areas, and human rights violations persist during their establishment.
• Legal and policy developments in tropical forest countries have seen mixed results. While Indonesia and Brazil have had positive developments in land use planning and environmental monitoring, progress has slowed in the Republic of the Congo, Côte d’Ivoire, and Cameroon. Additionally, a new regulation in Indonesia may undermine previous safeguards for forest protection.
• Boreal and temperate forest countries, specifically the United States, Canada, and Northern European countries, continue to allow intensive forest management that causes degradation. This occurs despite international biodiversity and climate commitments, partly because international scrutiny has focused primarily on tropical forests rather than industrial logging in developed nations.
• Countries are increasingly using demand-side trade restrictions to limit products linked to forest degradation, exemplified by the EU's Regulation on deforestation-free products (EUDR). The success of these measures relies on support for developing countries and robust implementation across sourcing nations.
• Legal recognition of land rights for local communities (LCs) and Indigenous Peoples (IPs) remains slow, with at least 1.375 billion hectares of customary or historic claims not yet legally recognized by governments. While Brazil has seen significant positive developments recently, other countries have attempted to weaken these rights, and environmental defenders frequently face criminalization, harassment, and violence.

APA

Forest Declaration Assessment (2023). Forest rights and governance 2023. https://forestdeclaration.org/resources/forest-rights-and-governance-2023/

Chicago

Forest Declaration Assessment. Forest rights and governance 2023. 2023. https://forestdeclaration.org/resources/forest-rights-and-governance-2023/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Forest Declaration Assessment |title=Forest rights and governance 2023 |date=2023 |url=https://forestdeclaration.org/resources/forest-rights-and-governance-2023/ |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{forestdeclarationassessment2023forest, author = {{Forest Declaration Assessment}}, title = {{Forest rights and governance 2023}}, institution = {Forest Declaration Assessment}, year = {2023}, url = {https://forestdeclaration.org/resources/forest-rights-and-governance-2023/}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }