The Global Forest Goals Report, 2021

The United Nations recently released the Global Forest Goals Report, 2021. According to this report, COVID-19 has further increased the challenges facing countries in managing forests.

Highlights of the report

During COVID-19, the forest-dependent population suffered from loss of income, loss of jobs, reduced access to markets and information. Most of the forest-dependent population also faced difficulty in accessing healthcare and essential services.

Dependence on forests

According to this report, approximately 1.6 billion people depend on forests. It is 25% of the global population.

• In the rural areas of the world, more than 40% live in savannas and forests. It is 20% of the global population.

Key goals identified by the report

• Australia: Will plant 20 million trees by 2020. It will be increased to one billion plantations by 2030
• Brazil: Planting areas to be increased to two million hectares
• India: 2,00,000 hectares of trees and forest cover will be added every year
• Kenya: Tree cover to be increased by 10%
• Myanmar: Forest cover will be increased by 30%
• Japan: 25 million hectares of forest area will be increased
• New Zealand: 1 billion trees to be planted by 2028
• Thailand: Forest cover to be increased by 55%
• Sri Lanka: Forest cover will be increased by 32%
• Nigeria: Forest cover to be increased from 6% to 25% by 2030

The background

In this report, 6 of the 26 targets of the National Forest Plan, Global Forest Goals, have been observed. The six goals are as follows:

• Compensation for loss of forest cover
• Improvement of forest benefits and livelihoods
• Protecting forests and sustainable use of forest products
• Mobilization of resources
• Promoting inclusive forest administration
• Cooperation in all fields

The United Nations Strategic Plan for Forests was created to promote sustainable forest management. It is being implemented between 2017 and 2030. The main objective of this scheme is to increase the forest area in the world by 3% by 2030. That is, 120 million hectares of land has to be brought under forest cover.

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