Forest Pathways Report 2023

WWF’s report comes just two years on from pledges made at the UN Climate Change Conference, COP26, by over 130 countries representing 85% of the world’s forests to halt and reverse deforestation by 2030. The analysis shows that the speed and intensity with which forests around the world are still being destroyed, and the lack of progress on commitments, leaves the world clearly in danger of missing vital targets. The Assessment shows that in 2022, global deforestation reached 6.6 million hectares, with primary tropical forest loss at 4.1 million hectares. An alarming 96% of this takes place in tropical regions. Tropical Asia is the only region that is close to the pathway for achieving zero gross deforestation.

In addition to calling for financial promises to be met, the WWF Forest Pathways 2023 report sets out a blueprint to save forests by 2030, with essential measures, including:

• Ending forest-harming investments and subsidies such as agricultural subsidies responsible for the loss of 2.2 million hectares of forest per year
• Reforming the rules of global trade that harm forests, cutting deforesting commodities out of global supply chains, and removing barriers to forest-friendly goods
• Accelerating the recognition of land rights to Indigenous peoples
• Making the shift towards nature-based economies

WWF urges governments and businesses to heed the warnings from the new data and take urgent action to protect and restore forests.