Global deforestation rates are on the rise despite international high-level commitments towards 2030, with a loss of over 6 million hectares of forests only in 2023, according to an annual assessment released Tuesday.

The report, by civil society-led initiative Forest Declaration Assessment, said deforestation has increased in 140 out of 141 countries that signed the Glasgow Declaration on Forests and Land Use three years ago, committing to halt and reverse forest loss and land degradation by 2030.

Around 6.37 mln ha of global forests were lost last year, including 3.7 mln of tropical forests, the report said.

Overall, countries are 45% off track from the trajectory needed to reach zero deforestation within the next six years, with recent trends threatening to hampering also the achievement of the Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) targets.

The assessment tracks progress against the average deforestation rate between 2018 and 2020, used by authors as the baseline level.

Although deforestation in 2023 slightly decreased compared to last year’s Forest Declaration Assessment report, when 6.6 mln ha were cleared, including 4.1 mln of tropical forests, researchers warned this is far from enough to reach global targets.

“The bottom line is that globally, deforestation has gotten worse, not better, since the beginning of the decade,” said Ivan Palmegiani, biodiversity and land use consultant at Climate Focus and lead author of the report.

”We’re only six years away from a critical global deadline to end deforestation, and forests continue to be chopped down, degraded, and set ablaze at alarming rates.”

According to the authors, efforts to protect primary tropical forests – among the most pristine and carbon-rich ecosystems – are currently 38% off track, especially in Asia, Latin America, and Africa.

Overall in 2023, Brazil, Indonesia, Bolivia, and the Democratic Republic of Congo lost the largest portions of forest.

Conversely, progress was seen in Australia, Colombia, Vietnam, Venezuela, and Paraguay.

Source: Forest Declaration Assessment 2024

“A clear problem is that progress on forest protection is vulnerable to shifting political and economic priorities,” Erin Matson, a senior consultant at Climate Focus and co-author of the report, said in a statement.

“If economic or political conditions change, forest loss can come roaring back. We’re seeing this effect in the spiking deforestation in Indonesia and Bolivia.”

As for the main drivers, 57% of global deforestation over the past two decades was linked to the production of agricultural commodities, with mining adding increasing pressure on forests.

MAJOR SETBACK

The report showed that, following several years of progress in cutting forest loss, Asia experienced a major setback last year.

“Tropical Asia took a turn for the worse in 2023, while it was nearly on track in 2022,” Matson told a media briefing.

“But last year, deforestation in the region spiked to 1.83 mln ha, with Indonesia’s deforestation alone spiking by 57% in one year, which means it was 82% off track.”

According to the lead author, the setback was in large part attributable to surging global demand for commodities like paper for packaging and mined metals like nickel.

Conversely, Brazil is moving in a more positive direction, though the nation is still the world’s most deforested country and lost 3.74 mln of tropical primary forests last year.

“In 2023, the Brazilian Amazon – over half of the Amazon’s total area – saw a 62.2% decrease in deforestation compared to 2022, falling to 454,000 ha,” the report said.

“Overall, the country’s deforestation rate is down 9% since the beginning of the decade,” Matson added.

In this context, a separate report released earlier this year showed that in the first months of 2024 deforestation levels in the Brazilian and Colombian Amazon recorded the lowest rates in the region in 23 years.

However, the Cerrado biome has experienced an alarming rise in ecosystem conversion in recent years, the report said, as also showed in a separate study released in Dec. 2023.

“2023 marked the first time that deforestation in the Cerrado was higher than that in the Amazon, with a 67.7% increase in deforestation in Cerrado compared to 2022.”

BEYOND TROPICS

Outside the tropics, the report highlighted that temperate forests in Latin America and North America saw the highest absolute levels of deforestation.

Moreover, boreal and temperate forests, mostly located in northern and industrialised countries, are the most affected by degradation, with temperate forests of Europe 98% off track to halt forest degradation by 2030.

‘Degradation’ occurs when forests aren’t cleared entirely but instead damaged due to external factors such as logging, the building of roads, the collection of firewood, and forest fires.

Globally, the total area of forests affected by degradation is “almost too large to comprehend”, said Franziska Haupt, managing partner at Climate Focus.

“At least 62.6 mln ha of forests worldwide fell to a lower integrity category in 2022. This is equivalent to twice the size of Germany,” she added.

The report also provided an update on the loss of forests located in Key Biodiversity Areas (KBA), which are defined as ecosystems where particularly important plants and animals live.

The authors found that over 1.4 mln ha of forested KBAs were lost in 2023.

“The rising tree cover loss KBAs underlines a dangerous trend, proving that deforestation is intertwined with biodiversity loss in critical ecosystems,” said Hermine Kleymann, head of policy at WWF International’s Forest Practice.

“In their National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans (NBSAPs), governments must ensure that drivers of deforestation are addressed, and protected areas and OECMs deliver effective and equitable conservation outcomes, in a way that maintains connectivity.”

To meet forest protection ambitions, the report outlined a series of solutions countries and other actors should implement at the national and international level, including:

• Providing clear and transparent data on restoration efforts
• Ensuring adequate financing goes towards forest protection
• Reducing demand for commodities that drive deforestation in countries and regions like the US, Europe, and China
• Strengthening the land rights of Indigenous Peoples recognised as important forest stewards

Some of these targets will be discussed by parties at the COP16 UN biodiversity summit to be held in Cali, Colombia, starting in two weeks.

The talks mark the first UN conference after countries agreed upon the GBF two years ago.

By Giada Ferraglioni – giada@carbon-pulse.com

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