NEW YORK DECLARATION ON FORESTS PROGRESS ASSESSMENT GOALS SUMMARY

This report assesses progress toward Goal 3 of the New York Declaration on Forests: significantly reducing deforestation derived from economic sectors other than agriculture by 2020. It highlights the roles of infrastructure and mining as primary drivers of forest loss and identifies critical data gaps that prevent a global aggregate assessment of these impacts.

• There is currently a lack of aggregate data sources to assess the global or regional impacts of economic sectors other than agriculture on deforestation, making it impossible to identify specific progress indicators for these drivers.
• Infrastructure development, including energy, settlements, and transport, is a major driver of forest loss, accounting for one-tenth of tropical deforestation. Transport infrastructure is particularly impactful as it opens land for further use; in the Brazilian Amazon, nearly all deforestation occurred within 1 km of rivers or 5.5 km of roads.
• The mining sector contributes 7 percent of tropical deforestation, with coal mining alone threatening nearly 12 million hectares of forest. The transition to low-carbon technologies is expected to increase the demand for metals and minerals by 25 percent by 2050, potentially exacerbating this trend.
• Specific regional hotspots are emerging due to infrastructure and mining: the Western Amazon is seeing a new wave of projects including hydroelectric plants and oil and gas facilities, while in Indonesia, coal mining in Kalimantan threatens over 1 million hectares of forest.
• Several initiatives are working to fill data gaps and improve sustainability standards. These include the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) standards, the World Bank's Environmental and Social Framework (applicable from 2018), and a Chatham House project focusing on Chinese financial institutions investing in the USD 890 billion Belt and Road Initiative.
• New data tools are being developed to monitor forest loss, such as Global Forest Watch's integration of mining concession maps and the Global Road Map and Roadless Initiative, which aim to identify areas where road construction has the lowest environmental impact.

APA

Forest Declaration Assessment (2018). NEW YORK DECLARATION ON FORESTS PROGRESS ASSESSMENT GOALS SUMMARY. https://forestdeclaration.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/2017Goal3.pdf

Chicago

Forest Declaration Assessment. NEW YORK DECLARATION ON FORESTS PROGRESS ASSESSMENT GOALS SUMMARY. 2018. https://forestdeclaration.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/2017Goal3.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/2020/11/2017Goal3.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/2020/11/2017Goal3.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }