PROGRESS ON THE NEW YORK DECLARATION ON FORESTS

The 2020 NYDF Progress Assessment executive summary evaluates progress toward Goals 3 and 4 of the New York Declaration on Forests, which focus on reducing deforestation from infrastructure and extractive industries and supporting sustainable livelihoods. The report finds that natural forest loss has increased since 2014, failing the 2020 target of halving the rate. While some policy frameworks and corporate commitments exist, progress is severely hindered by a lack of transparency, weak enforcement of regulations, and a continued global economic reliance on resource extraction.

• The global community failed to meet the 2020 target of halving the rate of natural forest loss since 2014; instead, the rate of loss has increased.
• Infrastructure development and natural resource extraction are increasing in tropical forest regions, driven by growing demand for fossil fuels and mined minerals. This is accompanied by a tripling of artisanal and small-scale miners over the last twenty years.
• Government progress is characterized by a gap between policy and implementation. While nearly 18% of global forests are protected areas and many countries have national forest strategies, enforcement is often lax, and some protections have been rolled back, a trend accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Corporate transparency in the extractive sector is very low. Although 78% of assessed mining companies committed to stopping biodiversity loss, only 23 out of 225 invited companies disclosed data in 2019 and 2020.
• Grassroots and Indigenous-led movements have successfully used international alliances to delay or cancel large-scale infrastructure projects and have won legal victories regarding territorial rights, though court-based redress remains slow.
• Financial institutions and donors lack transparency regarding forest-risk investments. While REDD+ initiatives have mobilized at least USD 7.6 billion in public finance, many programs are in early stages and donor-imposed conditions can create barriers.
• Power imbalances between governments/corporations and local communities lead to the marginalization of Indigenous peoples and the criminalization of environmental defenders. The extractive sector was linked to the highest number of murders of environmental defenders in 2019.

APA

Forest Declaration Assessment (2020). PROGRESS ON THE NEW YORK DECLARATION ON FORESTS. https://forestdeclaration.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/2020NYDFReport_ES_EN.pdf

Chicago

Forest Declaration Assessment. PROGRESS ON THE NEW YORK DECLARATION ON FORESTS. 2020. https://forestdeclaration.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/2020NYDFReport_ES_EN.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Forest Declaration Assessment |title=PROGRESS ON THE NEW YORK DECLARATION ON FORESTS |date=November 2020 |url=https://forestdeclaration.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/2020NYDFReport_ES_EN.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{forestdeclarationassessment2020progress, author = {{Forest Declaration Assessment}}, title = {{PROGRESS ON THE NEW YORK DECLARATION ON FORESTS}}, institution = {Forest Declaration Assessment}, year = {2020}, month = nov, url = {https://forestdeclaration.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/2020NYDFReport_ES_EN.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }