NEW YORK DECLARATION ON FORESTS PROGRESS ASSESSMENT GOALS SUMMARY

This report summarizes progress toward Goal 10 of the New York Declaration on Forests, which focuses on strengthening forest governance, transparency, and the rule of law, while empowering indigenous peoples and local communities. It details developments in producer and consumer countries regarding illegal timber trade, the rising violence against environmental defenders, and the status of financial resources and data collection for land tenure security.

• Violence against land and environmental defenders reached a record high in 2016, with 182 killings reported. This continues an upward trend from 2010, when 80 killings were recorded. Approximately 70 percent of these killings occurred in Latin America, and 40 percent of the victims were indigenous peoples.
• Producer countries have made progress in integrating the Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade (FLEGT) agenda. Key developments include the integration of FLEGT into the Association of South East Asian Nations work plan, a joint Voluntary Partnership Agreement (VPA) implementation framework in Vietnam, and the start of the FLEGT licensing scheme in Indonesia.
• Consumer countries have implemented new legal frameworks to restrict illegal timber imports. South Korea passed an act to revise the 2012 Forest Legislation in March 2017, Malaysia introduced an Import Legality Regulation in July 2017, and Japan enacted the Clean Wood Act.
• Despite some progress in legality frameworks, EU member states saw a 14 percent increase in the value of timber imported from fragile and conflict-affected countries in 2015, totaling EUR 178 million. The top five importers from these areas were Portugal, Greece, Belgium, Italy, and Spain.
• Financial resources for indigenous peoples and local communities remain insufficient, with only 10 percent of climate finance reaching the local level in 2016. However, specific initiatives have been funded, including the International Land and Forest Tenure Facility (USD 35 million budget) and the Forest Investment Program’s Dedicated Grant Mechanism (USD 80 million capitalized).
• A 2017 study by the Rights and Resources Initiative across 30 low- and middle-income countries found significant gaps in women's rights within community-based forest tenure. Adequate gender-sensitive provisions were found in only 3 percent of regimes for voting rights, 5 percent for leadership, 10 percent for inheritance, 18 percent for dispute resolution, and 29 percent for membership.

APA

Forest Declaration Assessment (2018). NEW YORK DECLARATION ON FORESTS PROGRESS ASSESSMENT GOALS SUMMARY. https://forestdeclaration.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/2017Goal10-low-res.pdf

Chicago

Forest Declaration Assessment. NEW YORK DECLARATION ON FORESTS PROGRESS ASSESSMENT GOALS SUMMARY. 2018. https://forestdeclaration.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/2017Goal10-low-res.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Forest Declaration Assessment |title=NEW YORK DECLARATION ON FORESTS PROGRESS ASSESSMENT GOALS SUMMARY |date=2018 |url=https://forestdeclaration.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/2017Goal10-low-res.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{forestdeclarationassessment2018new, author = {{Forest Declaration Assessment}}, title = {{NEW YORK DECLARATION ON FORESTS PROGRESS ASSESSMENT GOALS SUMMARY}}, institution = {Forest Declaration Assessment}, year = {2018}, url = {https://forestdeclaration.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/2017Goal10-low-res.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }