State of the World’s Forests 2022

In News

• Recently, The State of the World’s Forests (SOFO) 2022 report has been released by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO). 

About FAO

• It is a specialised agency of the United Nations that leads international efforts to defeat hunger.
• The goal is to achieve food security for all and make sure that people have regular access to enough high-quality food to lead active, healthy lives.
• With 195 members: 194 countries and the European Union, FAO works in over 130 countries worldwide.

Major Highlights of the Report (SOFO) 2022

• Deforestation as a cause:
  • The 420 million hectares of forests have been lost between 1990 and 2020, due to deforestation, though forests cover 4.06 billion ha (31 per cent) of the earth’s geographical area.
  • Restoration of degraded land through afforestation and reforestation could cost-effectively take 0.9 to 1.5 GtCO2e per year out of the atmosphere between 2020 and 2050.
• Rate of deforestation was declining:
  • It added that although the rate of deforestation was declining, 10 mha of forests were lost every year between 2015 and 2020.
• Deforestation in tropics:
  • Unless additional action is taken, an estimated 289 mha of forests would be deforested between 2016 and 2050 in the tropics alone, resulting in the emission of 169 GtCO2e.
• Irrecoverable or difficult-to-recover carbon
  • Globally, ecosystems at risk of deforestation or degradation contain at least 260 Gt of irrecoverable or difficult-to-recover carbon, particularly in peatlands, mangroves, old-growth forests and marshes.
• 15 percent of 250 emerging infectious diseases have been linked to forests:
  • It further stated that 30 percent of new diseases, reported since 1960, can be attributed to deforestation and land-use-change.
  • Deforestation, particularly in the tropics, has been associated with an increase in infectious diseases such as dengue fever and malaria.
• The cost of global strategies to prevent pandemics
  • Based on reducing the illegal wildlife trade, avoiding land-use change and increasing surveillance to be $22 billion to $31 billion.
• Extreme poverty
  • It also stated that approximately 124 million more people fell into extreme poverty after COVID-19 and this may have longer-term impacts on wood-based fuel, as there is evidence of increased wood-based fuel use in some countries during the pandemic.
• Sub-Saharan Africa
  • Around a billion people in sub-Saharan Africa will keep relying on polluting fuels like charcoal and fuelwood till 2025.
• The world population
  • It is projected to reach 9.7 billion people by 2050, which will increase competition for land, as the demand for food for this large population will rise by 35 to 56 per cent by the 2050s.
• Global consumption of all natural resources
  • The annual global consumption of all natural resources combined is expected to more than double from 92 billion tonnes in 2017 to 190 billion tonnes in 2060 due to increases in population size and affluence.
• Annual biomass extraction
  • It was expected to reach 44 billion tonnes by 2060, from 24 billion tonnes in 2017.
  • Demand for forest-based biomass is expected to rise further, mainly due to construction and packaging.   
• India and China could well emerge as the biggest hotspots for new zoonotic viral diseases
  • Those that spread from wildlife to other mammals and very likely to humans over the next few decades if human pressure on forests continues to increase.

Way forward/ Suggestions

• We need to act 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.
• It suggested better and more responsible land-use planning to address the underlying drivers of disease emergence.
• More than 140 countries have pledged, through the Glasgow Leaders’ Declaration on Forests and Land Use, to eliminate forest loss by 2030 and to support restoration and sustainable forestry.
  • An additional $19 billion has been allocated to help developing countries achieve these objectives.
• Directing funding for recovery towards long-term policies aimed at creating sustainable and green jobs and further mobilising private-sector investment.
• Empowering and incentivizing local actors, including women, youth and Indigenous Peoples, to take a leading role in the forest pathways.
• Engaging in awareness raising and policy dialogue on sustainable forest use as a means for simultaneously achieving economic and environmental goals.
• Maximising synergies among the three forest pathways and between agricultural, forestry, environmental and other policies and minimising trade-offs.

Source: DTE