Forests and how they can help address climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution

Forests cover nearly one-third of the Earth’s land surface and contain the majority of terrestrial biodiversity. The forest area continues to shrink, however, despite efforts to halt deforestation and restore degraded lands.

Shortly after the end of the last great ice age – 10,000 years ago – 57% of the world’s habitable land was covered by forest. Over the last 10,000 years the world has lost one-third of its forests. An area twice the size of the United States. Half occurred in the last century.

Forests are crucial for mitigating climate change. They contain 662 billion tons of carbon, which is more than half the global carbon stock in soils and vegetation.

Societies benefit from and are highly dependent on forests. More than half of world gross domestic product is estimated to depend significantly on ecosystem services. The forest sector contributes more than USD 1.52 trillion to world gross domestic product and employs 33 million people.

Many forest-proximate people obtain insufficient benefits from forests. Seventy-five percent of all rural people live within 1 km of forest, but many have few rights to forests, with states owning nearly three-quarters (73 percent) of all forests. Eighty percent of the extreme poor live in rural areas.

The COVID-19 pandemic had a significant impact on forest value chains and trade in early 2020. Most sectors rebounded quickly, but the risk of future pandemics remains. Forest management is well placed to play an important role in green recovery.

United Nations Brussels