12.02.2019
Nourishing a growing world population while nurturing our planet requires landscape approaches that protect and sustainably use vital ecosystem services, sustain livelihoods and tackle food security challenges, while adapting to the impacts of climate change.
The FAO’s Report on State of the World’s Forests 2018 provides detailed analysis aimed at capturing the contribution of forests and trees to 28 targets relating to ten SDGs. Through thematic metrics bringing together available evidence from a wide range of sources, a clearer picture is emerging of the full impact that forests and trees have on many other crucial areas of development.
The objective of SOFO 2018 is to identify how forests’ and trees’ contribution to sustainable development can be strengthened to help achieve the 2030 Agenda with its ambitious, integrated goals. It will demand a fundamental shift in the way policies are developed and implemented.
The Report underscores the importance of integrating forests into sustainable development strategies and underlines the role of the effective partnerships and private sector engagement.Forests and trees contribute in multiple ways to many of the SDGs, but as these contributions are often underrecognized and undervalued their full potential is not fully captured.
In order to realize this potential there is a need to: market the benefits of forests to policy-makers, and more widely; work with the private sector, within and beyond the forest sector; invest in transforming the informal sector; } integrate forest policies into the broader sustainable development agenda; undertake national or subnational analytical studies of the potential contribution of forests and trees for achieving the SDGs; improve availability of data and meet other information needs.
Clear legal frameworks, community engagement and coherent policy measures that balance stakeholder interests are part of the enabling environment needed. Policies must be geared towards incentivizing companies and small producers to engage in sustainable forest management, addressing potential barriers to investment and removing motives for clearing forests. Corporate responsibility for zero deforestation is key.
