Looking Back on 5 Years of Forest Outcomes

Nigel Sizer, outgoing director of the World Resources Institute's (WRI) Forests program, reflects on the development of monitoring and restoration initiatives and the increasing role of the private sector in forest conservation prior to his transition to president of the Rainforest Alliance.

• WRI and over 200 partner organizations, including Google, USAID, and the University of Maryland, developed Global Forest Watch, a system providing near-real-time, high-resolution monitoring of global forests and land use to increase accountability for resource management.
• WRI facilitated partnerships in Asia, Africa, and Latin America to promote landscape and forest restoration. This includes the African Forest Landscape Restoration Initiative (AFR100), where 10 African nations committed to restoring 31 million hectares of degraded land, and Initiative 20x20, where over a dozen regions and countries in Latin America and the Caribbean pledged to restore over 27 million hectares.
• The private sector has increased its involvement in forest conservation, with hundreds of companies committing to deforestation-free supply chains. Major companies such as Unilever and Cargill utilize Global Forest Watch to assess supplier risk, and impact investors have provided nearly $1 billion for restoration projects in Africa and Latin America.

APA

Sizer, N. (2016). Looking Back on 5 Years of Forest Outcomes. World Resources Institute. https://www.wri.org/insights/looking-back-5-years-forest-outcomes

Chicago

Sizer, Nigel. Looking Back on 5 Years of Forest Outcomes. World Resources Institute, 2016. https://www.wri.org/insights/looking-back-5-years-forest-outcomes.

Wikipedia

{{cite press release |last1=Sizer |first1=Nigel |title=Looking Back on 5 Years of Forest Outcomes |publisher=World Resources Institute |date=29 January 2016 |url=https://www.wri.org/insights/looking-back-5-years-forest-outcomes |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@misc{sizer2016looking, author = {Sizer, Nigel}, title = {{Looking Back on 5 Years of Forest Outcomes}}, publisher = {World Resources Institute}, year = {2016}, month = jan, url = {https://www.wri.org/insights/looking-back-5-years-forest-outcomes}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }