2018 Progress Assessment Goal 4 Update

The 2018 Progress Assessment for Goal 4 highlights the difficulty in quantifying the impact of basic needs on deforestation due to limited data. While the distribution of clean cookstoves in developing countries nearly doubled between 2015 and 2016, financial support for woodfuel interventions declined. The report identifies several drivers of deforestation linked to poverty, including swidden agriculture, subsistence migration, and charcoal production, and presents case studies from Peru, Guatemala, Brazil, Mexico, Ghana, and Côte d’Ivoire demonstrating the potential of sustainable landscape approaches, community forestry, and agricultural intensification to reduce forest loss.

• The distribution of clean and efficient cookstoves and fuels in developing countries saw a significant increase, nearly doubling between 2015 and 2016 to exceed 84 million units by the end of 2016. However, the overall impact on deforestation is unclear because many are distributed in countries like China and India where woodfuel is not a primary driver of forest loss.
• Financial support for woodfuel interventions continued to decrease in 2016, characterized by almost no new official development assistance commitments and a decline in carbon market transactions and sector funding.
• Basic needs drive deforestation through various mechanisms: swidden agriculture can threaten forests when population growth pressures expansion; subsistence farmers in the Amazon often clear land for cattle farming or speculation; and charcoal production can cause significant local deforestation, particularly around major Sub-Saharan cities like Dar El Salaam and Kinshasa.
• The Cocoa & Forests Initiative, a public-private partnership involving 12 companies, aims to end deforestation in the cocoa supply chain in Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire by promoting sustainable intensification and livelihood diversification, such as mixed agroforestry, to meet farmers' basic needs without new forest incursions.
• In Peru's Alto Mayo watershed, a sustainable landscape approach from 2008-2016 resulted in 5.65 metric tons of avoided carbon emissions and significantly increased coffee productivity from 900 to 24,600 kilograms per hectare for participating producers.
• Community-based concessions in Guatemala’s Maya Biosphere Reserve (MBR) have led to lower deforestation rates compared to the national average; the MBR deforestation rate from 2000-2013 was 1.2 percent, while Guatemala's average was 1.4 percent.
• In Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula, where subsistence farming (specifically the milpa system) contributes to roughly 16 percent of deforestation, The Nature Conservancy has seen a 400 percent productivity increase by shifting farmers toward sustainable agriculture that incorporates the forest landscape.

APA

Forest Declaration Assessment (2018). 2018 Progress Assessment Goal 4 Update. https://forestdeclaration.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/2018Goal4.pdf

Chicago

Forest Declaration Assessment. 2018 Progress Assessment Goal 4 Update. 2018. https://forestdeclaration.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/2018Goal4.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Forest Declaration Assessment |title=2018 Progress Assessment Goal 4 Update |date=2018 |url=https://forestdeclaration.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/2018Goal4.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{forestdeclarationassessment20182018, author = {{Forest Declaration Assessment}}, title = {{2018 Progress Assessment Goal 4 Update}}, institution = {Forest Declaration Assessment}, year = {2018}, url = {https://forestdeclaration.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/2018Goal4.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }