Progress on the New York Declaration on Forests

The report finds that non-agricultural sectors continue to pose a significant risk to global forests, acting as 'drivers of drivers' where infrastructure like roads enables further clearing. Despite the adoption of the 'mitigation hierarchy' and new sustainability certifications, political inertia and the demand for minerals—driven by both industrialization and the transition to low-carbon technologies—threaten intact forests in the Amazon, Congo Basin, and Indonesia. The document highlights a trend of 'protected area downgrading, downsizing, and degazettement' (PADDD) to facilitate construction and notes that while biodiversity offsets are increasing, they often fail to reduce overall forest impacts.

• Non-agricultural sectors like mining and infrastructure often act as 'drivers of drivers', where the construction of roads and complementary infrastructure facilitates further migration and forest-clearing for agriculture or settlements.
• Extractive activities overlap significantly with high-value conservation areas: 44% of large-scale mines are in forests, 77% of forest mines are within 50km of a protected area, and 19% of remaining intact forest landscapes overlap with mining, oil, and gas concessions.
• The global transition to renewable energy is expected to increase the demand for mined minerals like lithium, graphite, and nickel, potentially driving exploration and road construction into remote forest areas.
• There is a growing trend of 'protected area downgrading, downsizing, and degazettement' (PADDD) to facilitate infrastructure and mining, notably in Brazil where the administration announced intentions to subject over 60 protected areas to this process.
• Environmental Impact Assessments (EIAs) are often ineffective due to data omissions or failure to account for secondary impacts; for example, a review of 236 monitoring practices in Minas Gerais, Brazil, found they met only 32% of best-practice technical requirements.
• While the number of countries with biodiversity offset policies nearly doubled between 2000 and 2017, these projects often do little to reduce overall forest impacts due to issues with ecological effectiveness and longevity.
• New industry-led certification schemes, such as the Initiative for Responsible Mining (IRMA) and the Aluminium Stewardship Initiative (ASI), are emerging to promote sustainability and the application of the mitigation hierarchy.

APA

Forest Declaration Assessment (2019). Progress on the New York Declaration on Forests. https://forestdeclaration.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/2019NYDFGoal3.pdf

Chicago

Forest Declaration Assessment. Progress on the New York Declaration on Forests. 2019. https://forestdeclaration.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/2019NYDFGoal3.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Forest Declaration Assessment |title=Progress on the New York Declaration on Forests |date=September 2019 |url=https://forestdeclaration.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/2019NYDFGoal3.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{forestdeclarationassessment2019progress, author = {{Forest Declaration Assessment}}, title = {{Progress on the New York Declaration on Forests}}, institution = {Forest Declaration Assessment}, year = {2019}, month = sep, url = {https://forestdeclaration.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/2019NYDFGoal3.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }