NEW YORK DECLARATION ON FORESTS ENDORSER PERSPECTIVES REPORT

The report analyzes perspectives from 84 NYDF endorsers, including governments, companies, NGOs, and indigenous peoples. It finds that while many individual actions have been taken, global deforestation has accelerated by 44% since 2014, and the world is not on track to meet its collective forest goals. The document identifies eight key lessons, emphasizing that high-level commitments must transition to measurable implementation supported by strong governance, secure land tenure for indigenous peoples, and a paradigm shift in forest finance to move from 'grey to green' investments.

• Global forest loss has accelerated significantly since the 2014 signing of the New York Declaration on Forests, with deforestation increasing by 44%.
• The world is not on track to meet collective forest goals, with less than one-fifth of the Bonn Challenge restoration goal achieved and very few corporations meeting their 2020 deforestation-free supply commitments.
• Strong governance and policy act as both a primary enabling condition and a major barrier; weak political will, corruption, and lack of law enforcement frequently stall progress.
• Secure land tenure is a critical precondition for sustainable forest management and the elimination of conflict, yet much of the land stewarded by indigenous and local communities remains formally unrecognized.
• There is a severe imbalance in forest finance, with USD 777 billion spent on drivers of forest loss since 2010 compared to only USD 20 billion for protection, restoration, and sustainable development.
• Forests and improved land management are significantly underfunded in climate mitigation efforts, receiving only 2 percent of public mitigation finance despite their potential to provide up to a third of the climate mitigation solution.
• Implementation of deforestation-free commitments is slowed by systemic barriers, including distorted forest valuations that prioritize short-term profit over long-term ecological value.
• High-level individual leadership, or 'forest champions,' is essential for adopting and implementing commitments across organizations and industries.
• While monitoring technology has improved, a lack of open and transparent data remains a challenge for accountability, particularly in agricultural commodity supply chains for beef, palm oil, soy, paper, coffee, cocoa, and rubber.
• Nature-based solutions provide significant societal benefits and support multiple Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), but these values are often not fully recognized by the governments and corporations driving forest loss.

APA

DeSantis, N., Ervin, J., Craig, M., Marx, M., Paz, C., & Kantcheva, N. (2019). NEW YORK DECLARATION ON FORESTS ENDORSER PERSPECTIVES REPORT. Forest Declaration Assessment. https://forestdeclaration.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/NYDF-Endorser-Perspectives-Report_EN.pdf

Chicago

DeSantis, Nicole, Jamison Ervin, Madeline Craig, Meredith Marx, Clea Paz, and Nina Kantcheva. NEW YORK DECLARATION ON FORESTS ENDORSER PERSPECTIVES REPORT. Forest Declaration Assessment, 2019. https://forestdeclaration.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/NYDF-Endorser-Perspectives-Report_EN.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=DeSantis |first1=Nicole |last2=Ervin |first2=Jamison |last3=Craig |first3=Madeline |last4=Marx |first4=Meredith |last5=Paz |first5=Clea |last6=Kantcheva |first6=Nina |title=NEW YORK DECLARATION ON FORESTS ENDORSER PERSPECTIVES REPORT |publisher=Forest Declaration Assessment |date=September 2019 |url=https://forestdeclaration.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/NYDF-Endorser-Perspectives-Report_EN.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{desantis2019new, author = {DeSantis, Nicole and Ervin, Jamison and Craig, Madeline and Marx, Meredith and Paz, Clea and Kantcheva, Nina}, title = {{NEW YORK DECLARATION ON FORESTS ENDORSER PERSPECTIVES REPORT}}, institution = {Forest Declaration Assessment}, year = {2019}, month = sep, url = {https://forestdeclaration.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/NYDF-Endorser-Perspectives-Report_EN.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }