‘Green should be the color of the future’: Global bodies launch campaign to protect forests

Subject: Environment

Section: International Conventions

Context:

The Collaborative Partnership on Forests (CPF), a partnership of 16 global organizations chaired by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), has launched the Joint Call to Action for Forests towards 2030.

Collaborative partnership on Forests (CPF):

CPF is an innovative voluntary interagency partnership on forests that was established in April 2001 in response to an invitation issued in the resolution 2000/35 by the Economic and Social Council of the UN (ECOSOC) that established the International Arrangement on Forests and the UN Forum on Forests (UNFF).
The Partnership is currently composed of fifteen international organizations, institutions and secretariats that have substantial programmes on forests.
Aim: To highlight the need for increased action and political commitment to implement forest solutions in pursuit of the United Nations-mandated Sustainable Development Goals (SDG).
Mission:
- To help enhance the contribution of all types of forests and trees outside forests to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and other internationally agreed development goals, promote the sustainable management of all types of forests and to strengthen long-term political commitment to that end.
Four focal areas of the Joint Call to Action for Forests towards 2030:
- Implementation and action; data, science and innovation; finance for forests; and communication and awareness-raising.
The CPF members committed to “reinforcing action to strengthen efforts at all levels to fully unlock the contributions of forests to sustainable development and achieve our joint vision for forests towards 2030”.

FAO’s Global Forest Resources Assessment (FRA):

FRA provides essential information for understanding the extent of forest resources, their condition, management and uses.
The ongoing assessment, FRA 2025, examines the status of, and trends in, more than 60 forest-related variables in 236 countries and territories in the period 1990–2025. FRA 2025 data are collected using commonly agreed terms and definitions through a transparent, traceable reporting process and a well-established network of officially nominated national correspondents that covers 188 countries and territories.
The world has lost 420 million hectares of forest through deforestation since 1990, and deforestation continues, although the rate slowed from 12 million hectares per year during 2010-2015 to 10 million hectares per year during 2015-2020.

Global Forest Goals outlined in the UN Strategic Plan for Forests 2017-2030:

The United Nations Strategic Plan for Forests 2017–2030 provides a global framework for action to sustainably manage all types of forests and trees outside forests, and to halt deforestation and forest degradation. At the heart of the Strategic Plan are six Global Forest Goals (GFGs) which directly support the UN Sustainable Development Goals.