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The NYDF Platform welcomes the Glasgow Leaders' Declaration on Forests and Land Use as a reaffirmation of the goal to halt deforestation by 2030. However, the NYDF Assessment reports that the world is not on track to meet this target, noting that forest loss has increased, restoration is slow, and finance is inadequate. While the Glasgow Declaration brings more leaders and financing pledges, the NYDF emphasizes the urgent need to translate these commitments into concrete actions and blunt reforms to achieve sustainable land use.

The Climate Crowd initiative uses community-collected data to co-design and implement resilience projects in rural areas. This report highlights projects in Madagascar, Zimbabwe, and Kenya focusing on livelihood diversification, water security, and the reduction of human-wildlife conflict.

ClientEarth evaluates the Environment Act 2021, noting that as a framework law, its success depends on future targets and rules. The organization criticizes the Act for failing to align air quality targets with WHO guidelines and for creating a loophole in deforestation laws by only restricting commodities produced illegally under local laws, which may fail to protect the Amazon rainforest.

The briefing finds that sectoral pledges on methane, coal, transport, and deforestation could close the 2030 emissions gap by approximately 9% (2.2 GtCO2e), though global emissions would still remain nearly twice as high as necessary for a 1.5°C pathway. The Global Methane Pledge and the Glasgow Leaders’ Declaration on Forests and Land Use offer the highest likely impacts, while the coal and electric vehicle initiatives provide minimal additional reductions due to limited signatory participation or delayed phase-out timelines.

The document outlines the role of major soy traders in driving deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon and Cerrado, critiquing current sustainability policies and certification schemes as insufficient. It recommends that financial institutions make financing contingent on traders adopting a January 2020 cut-off date, full traceability, and robust monitoring, with a timeline for suspending or ceasing services for non-compliance by 2023 and 2024.

WWF International outlines a framework for high-impact nature-based solutions (NbS) for climate mitigation, emphasizing that interventions must simultaneously benefit human well-being, biodiversity, and the climate. The report argues against narrowly designing projects for carbon credits, instead advocating for landscape-scale or jurisdictional approaches that align with national strategies and the Paris Agreement. It provides a hierarchy for forest-related interventions—prioritizing REDD, then improved forest management, and finally afforestation, reforestation, and restoration—and details essential safeguards, including free, prior and informed consent (FPIC) for Indigenous peoples and local communities (IPLCs). To ensure integrity, the blueprint recommends rigorous due diligence to mitigate risks such as inflated baselines, leakage, and non-permanence.

The document argues that infrastructure corruption, particularly 'grand corruption' occurring early in the project lifecycle, leads to oversized or unnecessary projects that cause irreversible ecological damage. It distinguishes between petty corruption, which typically has indirect conservation impacts, and grand corruption, which influences project scope and design for private gain. Using a lifecycle analysis (origination, feasibility/design, contracting/implementation, operation/maintenance, and evaluation/audit), the briefing identifies specific risks such as bribed environmental impact assessments and the circumvention of protections. It proposes anti-corruption strategies based on integrity, transparency, and accountability, recommending risk assessments and a combination of advocacy and direct action to improve conservation outcomes.

The author asserts that nature-based solutions (NbS) are essential for climate mitigation and resilience but must complement, not replace, industrial emissions cuts. Referencing the Science Based Targets Initiative (SBTi) net-zero standard, the text notes that companies must reduce internal emissions by 90-95% by 2050. NbS could potentially provide one-third of the emissions reductions needed by 2030, addressing the fact that land-use emissions constitute approximately 25% of global emissions.

The document explains that the 1.5-degree-C target, established under the 2015 Paris Agreement, is a critical threshold to limit cataclysmic climate impacts. While the Earth has already warmed by 1.2 degrees C since the Industrial Revolution, reaching the 1.5-degree-C limit requires cutting global carbon emissions in half by 2030 and achieving net-zero by 2050. This necessitates a rapid phase-out of fossil fuels—specifically leaving 90% of coal and 60% of oil and gas reserves in the ground—and ending deforestation. The guide warns that the world has already experienced temporary breaches of this threshold and faces a 66% chance of doing so for at least one year between now and 2027. It advises journalists to communicate both the current impacts of 1.2 degrees C and the available solutions to avoid public paralysis while emphasizing that every fraction of a degree of warming increases global risk.

This policy brief summarizes a March 24, 2021 webinar regarding the use of international trade policy, specifically voluntary sustainability standards (VSSs) and free trade agreement provisions, to reduce deforestation and preserve forest ecosystems.

Mighty Earth argues that the European Commission's decision to exclude natural rubber from its proposed anti-deforestation law is based on an incomplete dataset that ignores processed rubber imports. The briefing highlights that rubber expansion has caused millions of hectares of forest loss in Southeast Asia and Africa, and warns that a projected 33% increase in global demand by 2030 will further drive biodiversity loss and carbon emissions.

HP Inc. and WWF have collaborated for over a decade to ensure deforestation-free paper sourcing and protect global forest ecosystems. Key initiatives include restoring Brazil's Atlantic Forest, pursuing FSC certification for state-owned forest farms in China, and piloting a new WWF methodology to counterbalance the forest impact of all paper used in HP printers globally.

The policy brief examines the environmental and social costs of mining, the limitations of international and domestic governance, and the potential for public-private partnerships and the UN Sustainable Development Goals to create more sustainable mining practices.

This report by the Climate Policy Initiative evaluates the effectiveness of public policies used to combat deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon, consolidating academic evidence to propose a strengthened policy framework for forest protection and sustainable development.

The project targets the Luangwa Upper Sub-catchment in Mafinga District, Zambia, to secure the river's source and maintain water flow and quality. It addresses threats from shifting agriculture (chitemene), unsustainable wood collection, and forest fires. The strategy involves improving the management of the Mafinga Hills National Forest Reserve, establishing the first Water Resource Protection Area (WRPA) in Zambia, and promoting climate-resilient conservation agriculture and community forestry. The project is funded by the GEF with a total cost of US$ 24,738,355, including significant co-financing.

The project targets the Luangwa Upper Sub-Catchment in Zambia's Muchinga Province, specifically focusing on the Mafinga Hills National Forest Reserve and surrounding lands. It aims to combat deforestation and land degradation caused by shifting agriculture (chitemene), unsustainable wood collection, and forest fires. The strategy involves improving the management of the Mafinga Hills NFR, establishing a new Water Resource Protection Area (WRPA), and promoting climate-resilient conservation agriculture and community forestry. The project is funded by the GEF and implemented by the Ministry of Green Economy and Environment with technical support from WWF.

The report analyzes the economic drivers of deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon, comparing land price dynamics and cattle production inside and outside the Amazon biome. It finds that while cattle growth outside the Amazon is driven by meat and milk demand (increasing land prices), growth within the Amazon is strongly linked to land grabbing, which increases the supply of land and reduces its price. The authors argue that policies focusing solely on cattle productivity are insufficient for the Amazon; instead, addressing land grabbing and improving land security are critical to decoupling beef production from deforestation.

The report demonstrates that deforestation in the Amazon, specifically within the Xingu River Basin, significantly reduces rainfall in Mato Grosso. A counterfactual scenario where all Xingu Indigenous Territories are deforested predicts an average annual precipitation decrease of 7%, with more severe reductions during the dry season. These changes threaten agricultural productivity, urban water supplies, and hydroelectric power generation, with the center and north of the state being most vulnerable.

This report by CPI/PUC-Rio uses an atmospheric transport model to demonstrate that deforestation in the Amazon rainforest reduces rainfall in Mato Grosso. A counterfactual analysis of the total deforestation of indigenous territories in the Xingu River Basin suggests a 7% reduction in average annual precipitation, with more severe impacts during the dry season. The study highlights the critical role of protected forest areas in sustaining agricultural productivity, hydroelectric power generation, and urban water supplies.

The report argues that deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon is primarily driven by land grabbing rather than food demand. This is evidenced by a negative correlation between cattle herd growth and land prices in the Amazon, contrasting with the positive correlation found in other Brazilian regions. The authors conclude that policies focusing solely on productivity are insufficient and that land tenure security is essential to decouple cattle production from deforestation.