2018 Progress Assessment Goal 4 Update

The 2018 Progress Assessment Goal 4 Update evaluates efforts to support alternatives to deforestation driven by basic human needs, such as subsistence farming and woodfuel use. While the distribution of clean cookstoves has increased significantly, financial support for woodfuel interventions has declined. The report highlights various regional case studies in the Amazon, West Africa, and Southeast Asia that employ sustainable landscape approaches and community-based management to alleviate poverty and protect forests.

• The distribution of clean and efficient cookstoves and fuels in developing countries grew rapidly, nearly doubling between 2015 and 2016 to exceed 84 million units by the end of 2016. Approximately 84 percent (31 million) of these distributions met the clean and/or efficient standards established by the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves.
• Financial support for woodfuel interventions continued to decrease in 2016. This decline is characterized by almost no new official development assistance commitments for the charcoal and woodfuel sector, alongside a reduction in sector funding and carbon market transactions, potentially due to falling carbon prices and revised Clean Development Mechanism methodology.
• The impact of clean cookstoves on global deforestation rates is difficult to determine because many are distributed in countries like China and India where woodfuel is not a primary driver of deforestation. However, specific interventions in India, such as biogas promotion between 2001 and 2011, resulted in a national woodfuel displacement of 7.2 million metric tons and an aggregate emissions reduction of 6.7 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent.
• Basic needs drive deforestation through several mechanisms: swidden agriculture (which can be sustainable if fallow periods are sufficient), migration of landless farmers to forest frontiers for cattle farming or land speculation, and woodfuel collection. While woodfuel collection rarely causes land-cover change, charcoal production can facilitate deforestation due to its high profitability, particularly near major Sub-Saharan cities like Dar El Salaam and Kinshasa.
• In the Yucatán Peninsula, subsistence farming causes the loss of over 80,000 hectares of forest annually, with the traditional 'milpa' intercropping system contributing to roughly 16 percent of this deforestation. Initiatives by The Nature Conservancy and the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center have seen a 400 percent productivity increase by shifting toward sustainable agriculture.
• The Cocoa & Forests Initiative, launched in March 2017 by 12 companies and civil society, aims to end deforestation in the cocoa supply chain, specifically in Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire. These two countries lost 11 percent and 14 percent of their forest cover, respectively, since 2000. The initiative promotes sustainable intensification and livelihood diversification to meet basic needs without new forest incursions.
• Case studies in the Americas demonstrate the efficacy of community-based and landscape-scale management. In Peru's Alto Mayo watershed, strategies from 2008-16 led to 5.65 metric tons of avoided carbon emissions and increased coffee productivity from 900 to 24,600 kilograms per hectare. In Guatemala's Maya Biosphere Reserve, community-based concessions since 1995 resulted in a deforestation rate of 1.2 percent (2000-13), which was lower than the national average of 1.4 percent.

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} }