Progress on the New York Declaration on Forests

This report, published in November 2015 by Climate Focus and partners, establishes an assessment framework and provides an initial progress report on the ten goals of the New York Declaration on Forests (NYDF). It evaluates the status of global efforts to halt natural forest loss, restore degraded lands, and improve forest governance one year after the NYDF's September 2014 signing.

• The overarching goal of the NYDF is to end natural forest loss by 2030, with a milestone of reducing the rate of loss by at least 50% by 2020. While net natural forest loss has shown a continuous decline since the 2000-05 period, there is no evidence that the annual rate of gross clearing or harvesting of natural forests is slowing.
• Progress in eliminating deforestation from agricultural commodities varies by sector. Certified sustainable palm oil reached 18% of the global market by 2013, and half of the forests providing wood fiber for paper are under sustainability certification. However, certified sustainable soy represents only 2% of the global market, and there is no global certification standard or market share data for beef products.
• Non-agricultural drivers of deforestation include infrastructure development, human settlements, and mining. Between 2000 and 2010, infrastructure and human settlements each caused 10% of tropical deforestation, while mining caused 7%. There is currently no coordinated global effort to track the forest impact of these specific sectors.
• To address deforestation driven by basic needs, the distribution of clean cookstoves has accelerated, nearly doubling annually from 2008 to 2013. Global investments in clean cookstove distribution peaked at US$260 million in 2014.
• Regarding forest restoration, 62.6 million hectares have been committed under the Bonn Challenge since 2011, which is approximately 42% of the 150-million-hectare 2020 target. Additionally, 68 parties to the UNFCCC have submitted Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs) with land-sector targets totaling an estimated 121.7 million hectares.
• The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) adopted in September 2015 include a quantitative target to halt deforestation by 2020 (Target 15.2). However, the SDGs do not include an ambitious, quantitative target for forest restoration, despite such targets existing in the NYDF and the Bonn Challenge.
• Financial support for reducing forest emissions is increasing but disbursements lag. Bilateral Official Development Assistance (ODA) for reducing forest emissions in developing countries rose from an annual average of US$365 million (2002-07) to US$744 million (2008-13). Between 2008 and 2014, over US$3 billion was committed to performance-based REDD+ payments, but only just over US$1 billion was disbursed.
• The forest carbon market grew rapidly to US$237 million in 2011 but subsequently declined to approximately US$150 million by 2013.
• Forest governance has shown modest improvement, with the share of forests where indigenous people and local communities have recognized rights increasing by 38% between 2002 and 2013. However, the rate of legal recognition has slowed since 2008, and violence against land activists continues, with at least 523 killings reported between 2010 and 2014.

APA

Conway, D., Keenlyside, P., Roe, S., Streck, C., Vargas-Victoria, G., & Varns, T. (2015). Progress on the New York Declaration on Forests. Forest Declaration Assessment. https://forestdeclaration.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/2015NYDFReport.pdf

Chicago

Conway, Darragh, Paul Keenlyside, Stephanie Roe, Charlotte Streck, Gustavo Vargas-Victoria, and Theo Varns. Progress on the New York Declaration on Forests. Forest Declaration Assessment, 2015. https://forestdeclaration.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/2015NYDFReport.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Conway |first1=Darragh |last2=Keenlyside |first2=Paul |last3=Roe |first3=Stephanie |last4=Streck |first4=Charlotte |last5=Vargas-Victoria |first5=Gustavo |last6=Varns |first6=Theo |title=Progress on the New York Declaration on Forests |publisher=Forest Declaration Assessment |date=November 2015 |url=https://forestdeclaration.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/2015NYDFReport.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{conway2015progress, author = {Conway, Darragh and Keenlyside, Paul and Roe, Stephanie and Streck, Charlotte and Vargas-Victoria, Gustavo and Varns, Theo}, title = {{Progress on the New York Declaration on Forests}}, institution = {Forest Declaration Assessment}, year = {2015}, month = nov, url = {https://forestdeclaration.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/2015NYDFReport.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }