The In Brief version of the FAO flagship publication, the State of the World's Forests 2022, contains the key messages and main points from the publication and is aimed at the media, policy makers and a more general public.
Against the backdrop of the Glasgow Leaders’ Declaration on Forests and Land Use and the pledge of 140 countries to eliminate forest loss by 2030 and to support restoration and sustainable forestry, the 2022 edition of The State of the World’s Forests (SOFO) explores the potential of three forest pathways for achieving green recovery and tackling multidimensional planetary crises, including climate change and biodiversity loss. The three interrelated pathways are halting deforestation and maintaining forests; restoring degraded lands and expanding agroforestry; and sustainably using forests and building green value chains. The balanced, simultaneous pursuit of these pathways can generate sustainable economic and social benefits for countries and their rural communities, help sustainably meet increasing global demand for materials, and address environmental challenges. The State of the World’s Forests 2022 presents evidence on the feasibility and value of these pathways and outlines initial steps that could be taken to further pursue them. There is no time to lose – action is needed now to keep the global temperature increase below 1.5 °C, reduce the risk of future pandemics, ensure food security and nutrition for all, eliminate poverty, conserve the planet’s biodiversity and offer young people hope of a better world and a better future for all.
Nearly three years ago, world leaders agreed to the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) – the central framework for guiding development policies throughout the world. This edition of The State of the World’s Forests is aimed at enhancing our understanding of how forests and their sustainable management contribute to achieving several of the SDGs. Time is running out for the world’s forests: we need to work across sectors, bring stakeholders together, and take urgent action. The State of the World’s Forests 2018 identifies actions that can be taken to increase the contributions of forests and trees that are necessary to accelerate progress towards the SDGs. It is now critical that steps be taken to work more effectively with the private sector, and the informal forest sector must be transformed in order to bring broader economic, social and environmental benefits. Seventy years ago, when FAO completed its first assessment of the world’s forest resources, the major concern was whether there would be enough timber to supply global demand; now we recognize the greater global relevance of our forests and trees. For the first time, The State of the World’s Forests 2018 provides an assessment of the contribution of forests and trees to our landscapes and livelihoods. The purpose of this publication is to provide a much wider audience with an understanding of why forests and trees matter for people, the planet and posterity.
Innovation is essential for achieving the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Sustainable Development Goals. It is also an important accelerator for the transformation to more efficient, inclusive, resilient and sustainable agrifood systems and for achieving global goals such as the eradication of hunger and poverty and the sustainable management and use of natural resources. But innovation does not arise in a vacuum. Among other things, it requires enabling policies; strong, transformative partnerships; investment; an inclusive culture that is open to and encouraging of new ideas; and a willingness to take calculated risks. This edition of The State of the World’s Forests (SOFO) provides highlights on the state of the world’s forests and explores the transformative power of evidence-based innovation in the forest sector, ranging from new technologies to creative and successful policies and institutional changes, to new ways of getting finance to forest owners and managers. Eighteen case studies from around the world provide a glimpse at the wide range of technological, social, policy, institutional and financial forest-sector innovations – and combinations of these – being tested and implemented in real-world conditions. SOFO 2024 identifies barriers to, and enablers of, innovation and enumerates five actions for empowering people to apply their creativity in the forest sector to solve problems and scale up positive impacts.
A charming, richly illustrated, pocket-size exploration of the world’s trees Packed with surprising facts, this delightful and gorgeously designed book will beguile any nature lover. Expertly written and beautifully illustrated throughout with color photographs and original color artwork, The Little Book of Trees is an accessible and enjoyable mini reference book about the world’s trees, with examples drawn from across the globe. It fits an astonishing amount of information in a small package, covering a wide range of topics—from tree anatomy, diversity, and architecture to habitat and conservation. It also includes curious facts and a section on trees in myths, folklore, and modern culture around the world. The result is an irresistible guide to the amazing lives of trees. A beautifully designed pocket-size book with a foil-stamped cloth cover Features some 140 color illustrations and photos Makes a perfect gift
In this insightful book, Martin Hedemann-Robinson appraises the European Union’s development of its legal framework to assist in combating one of the foremost challenges facing the international community: global deforestation. He provides an analytical overview of the evolving Union legislation, discussing its impact both within the single market as well as internationally.
FAO’s most recent global synthesis on planted forests was released in 2009 and the last Unasylva on planted forests was published in 2005. Developed together with a coalition of external partners, including the International Union of Forest Research Organizations (IUFRO) task force on planted forests and the TreeDivNet network, Issue 254 hereby responds to the need for wider information-sharing on data, tools and approaches available for leveraging the contributions of planted forests to meet the target of increasing the global forest area of 3 percent by 2030, which Global Forest Goal 1 provides for. Unasylva issue 254 was launched in November 2023 at the International Congress on Planted Forests 2023 (ICPF2023) – the first edition of this global forum to be held in Africa (Nairobi, Kenya).
To coincide with the 50th anniversary of FAO’s Committee on Forestry, this edition of Unasylva showcases ways in which forests are delivering the "four betters" and underscores how forests are crucial for resilient and sustainable agrifood systems in a changing climate. As FAO’s longest running periodical, Unasylva focuses on issues and themes relevant to forestry and forest industries and aims to bring globally significant developments in forestry to policy-makers, forest managers, technicians, researchers, students and teachers around the globe.
Forests and trees support sustainable agriculture. They stabilize soils and climate, regulate water flows, give shade and shelter, and provide a habitat for pollinators and the natural predators of agricultural pests. They also contribute to the food security of hundreds of millions of people, for whom they are important sources of food, energy and income. Yet, agriculture remains the major driver of deforestation globally, and agricultural, forestry and land policies are often at odds. State of the World’s Forests (SOFO) 2016 shows that it is possible to increase agricultural productivity and food security while halting or even reversing deforestation, highlighting the successful efforts of Costa Rica, Chile, the Gambia, Georgia, Ghana, Tunisia and Viet Nam. Integrated land-use planning is the key to balancing land uses, underpinned by the right policy instruments to promote both sustainable forests and agriculture.
The strong commitment of the international community, and especially the CPF members, to provide the information necessary for monitoring progress towards global goals, targets and indicators in a comprehensive, efficient, timely and meaningful way led to the idea of developing a global core set of forest-related indicators (GCS). The aim was to simplify and harmonize concepts and terminology while respecting the needs of all potential users. The concrete work on the GCS was initiated in 2016 through an organization-led initiative on the development of global forest indicators. Following the recommendation of this initiative, the CPF members established a GCS taskforce, which developed the GCS. The GCS was presented to the United Nations Forum on Forests (UNFF) and FAO’s Committee on Forestry, which welcomed the progress made in developing the GCS and acknowledged its value for assessing progress and better focusing data-collection efforts to reduce duplication. The two bodies also encouraged the application of those indicators that are ready to use and requested the CPF to continue developing the remaining indicators, particularly those that may require additional efforts but are manageable through various data sources. This is an accompanying document of the FAO report, State of the World’s Forests 2022 (SOFO 2022). It provides an overview of the GCS and presents the latest data on the status and trends of the 21 indicators. SOFO 2022, which examines three potential forest pathways for addressing global challenges, is available separately.