Once Our Primary Forests Are Gone, They’re Gone Forever
Efforts to reverse deforestation and land degradation are moving in the wrong direction, exposing the hollowness of United Nations pledges.
Losing ground.
Photographer: Ivan Valencia/Bloomberg
At the 2021 United Nations Climate Conference in Glasgow, 145 nations made a pledge to halt and reverse deforestation and land degradation by 2030. Almost three years later, the call for transformative action is ringing hollow.
Globally, 6.37 million hectares of forest were lost in 2023, and targets to reduce deforestation were missed in almost all tropical regions, according to the 2024 Forest Declaration Assessment. Even more forest— 62.6 million hectares — became degraded (meaning an area fell to a lower ecological integrity class) in 2022. Overall, the world is 45% off its deforestation targets, and, in a frustrating twist, forest-loss levels have risen above a 2018-2020 baseline since the pledge.