Global deforestation surges despite COP26 pledge to halt by 2030

Demand for beef, soy, palm oil and nickel hindering efforts to halt deforestation by 2030, global report finds.
Representative image.
Representative image.File photo
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Deforestation has significantly increased worldwide in 2023 as compared to 2021, when 140 countries promised to 'end and reverse deforestation by 2030' as a part of the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow, says a recent report.

Almost 6.4 million hectares (16 million acres) of forest were razed in 2023, according to the report. Around 62.6 million hectares of forest were degraded due to road construction, logging and forest fires. Spikes in deforestation in Indonesia and Bolivia were driven by political changes and continued demand for commodities including beef, soy, palm oil, paper and nickel in rich countries.

Deforestation in 2023 is almost 50% higher than steady progress towards zero would require, the assessment discovered. This is counterproductive to combating climate crises and will lead to endangering of wildlife in the region.

The 2024 forest declaration assessment, produced by a coalition of research and civil society organisations, assessed progress towards the goal using a baseline of the average deforestation between 2018 and 2020.

“The bottom line is that, globally, deforestation has gotten worse, not better, since the beginning of the decade,” said Ivan Palmegiani, a consultant for the research group Climate Focus and lead author of the report.

Although the deadline to end deforestation is only six years away and forests are degraded at alarming rates, corrective action can be taken if all countries make it a priority, he said. “Especially if industrialised countries seriously reconsider their excessive consumption levels and support forest countries,” he added.

"The next year, if economic or political conditions change, forest loss can come roaring back. We’re seeing this effect in the spiking deforestation in Indonesia and Bolivia," said Erin D Matson, a senior consultant at Climate Focus and co-author of the report.

"Ultimately, to meet global forest protection targets, we must make forest protection immune to political and economic whims,” he added.

Most countries backed the 2030 zero deforestation pledge at the UN COP26 climate summit in 2021.

The report highlighted a bright spot in the Brazilian Amazon, where President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s new government cut deforestation by 62% in its first year.

Matson said, “Indonesia’s deforestation alone spiked by 57% in one year. This was in large part attributable to surging global demand for things like paper and mined metals like nickel.

“But it’s also clear that the Indonesian government took its foot off the gas. It experienced the steepest drop in deforestation of any tropical country from 2015-17 and 2020-22, so we have to hope that this setback is only temporary.” In 2023, Indonesia produced half the world’s nickel, a metal used in many green technologies.

“Brazil gives us an example of positive progress [in the Amazon] but deforestation in the Cerrado [tropical savanna] increased 68% year over year,” she said.

The country has also been ravaged by forest fires that are being made more likely and intense by the climate crisis. The report found that about 45 million hectares have burned in the past five years.

Other countries that made progress towards the 2030 deforestation target included Australia, Colombia, Paraguay, Venezuela and Vietnam. Outside the tropics, temperate forests in North America and Latin America recorded the greatest absolute levels of deforestation.

The researchers said funding for forest protection, strengthening the land rights of Indigenous people and reducing demand for commodities produced via deforestation were needed.

The EU has proposed ambitious regulations that would ban the sales of products linked to deforestation, such as coffee, chocolate, leather and furniture. However, on 3 October, the European Commission proposed a one-year delay “to phase in the system” after protests from countries including Australia, Brazil, Indonesia and Ivory Coast.

Matson said, “this pushback is largely driven by political pressures, and it’s a shame. We can’t rely on voluntary efforts – they have made very little progress over the last decade.”

Almost 19.2 billion USD of public and private funds were pledged during the COP26 summit in 2021. The 2021 deal came after the failure of the New York Declaration on Forests, a voluntary and legally non-binding agreement on deforestation signed by over 40 governments in 2014.

The inefficiency of such voluntary agreements needs to be addressed and stringent regulation along with more funding for forest protection need to be introduced to achieve the goal, researchers said.

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