Forest Declaration Assessment

The 2022 Forest Declaration Assessment finds that no global indicator is currently on track to meet the 2030 goals of halting forest loss and restoring 350 million hectares of landscape. While Tropical Asia is on track to halt deforestation, other regions like Tropical Latin America and Africa are not. The report highlights a massive funding gap, with current mitigation finance at less than 1% of the estimated USD 460 billion annual need. It also notes that commodity-driven deforestation declined by 6% in 2021 but remains far from the trajectory needed for the 2025 private sector target. Governance remains a critical weakness, with persistent tenure insecurity for Indigenous Peoples and local communities and widespread corruption in the timber trade.

• No global indicator is currently on track to meet the 2030 goals of stopping forest loss and degradation and restoring 350 million hectares of forest landscape.
• Global deforestation rates in 2021 declined by 6.3% compared to the 2018-20 baseline, which is below the 10% annual reduction required to reach zero deforestation by 2030.
• Tropical Asia is the only region currently on track to halt deforestation by 2030, while reductions in Tropical Latin America and Africa are insufficient.
• Commodity-driven tree cover loss declined by 6% in 2021 relative to 2018-20, but rates remain higher than any year before 2016 and are not on track for the 2025 private sector target.
• There is a severe funding gap for forest protection and restoration, with an estimated annual need of up to USD 460 billion, while current mitigation finance averages only USD 2.3 billion per year.
• Public 'grey' finance (potentially harmful) significantly outweighs green finance, with at least USD 257 billion in domestic and USD 13 billion in international grey investments from 2010-20.
• Indigenous Peoples and local communities (IPs and LCs) are severely underfunded, receiving only 1.4% of total public climate finance in 2019-20.
• The voluntary carbon market grew by 89% in 2021, but the average price of forest carbon credits (USD 4.7 to 15 per ton of CO2) is well below the levels needed to meet the Paris Agreement's 1.5°C target.
• Tenure insecurity remains a major issue, with at least 50% of lands and territories held by IPs and LCs not legally recognized globally.
• Illegal logging is a significant driver of forest loss, with estimates that 15% to 30% of the global timber trade is illegal, and up to 90% of trade from tropical countries is illicit.
• Environmental defenders face extreme risks, with over 200 killed in 2021, and the mining and extractives sector is consistently among the deadliest.
• Indonesia's Omnibus Law on Job Creation is identified as a potential setback, as it removes the minimum 30% forest cover requirement for islands and eliminates strict liability for businesses whose concession areas burn.

APA

Omuko-Jung, L., & Teunissen, A. (2022). Forest Declaration Assessment. Forest Declaration Assessment. https://forestdeclaration.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/2022ForestDeclarationAssessment.pdf

Chicago

Omuko-Jung, Lydia, and Aron Teunissen. Forest Declaration Assessment. Forest Declaration Assessment, 2022. https://forestdeclaration.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/2022ForestDeclarationAssessment.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Omuko-Jung |first1=Lydia |last2=Teunissen |first2=Aron |title=Forest Declaration Assessment |publisher=Forest Declaration Assessment |date=October 2022 |url=https://forestdeclaration.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/2022ForestDeclarationAssessment.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{omukojung2022forest, author = {Omuko-Jung, Lydia and Teunissen, Aron}, title = {{Forest Declaration Assessment}}, institution = {Forest Declaration Assessment}, year = {2022}, month = oct, url = {https://forestdeclaration.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/2022ForestDeclarationAssessment.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }