The Global Forest Goals Report 2021

The UNSPF vision, principles, and commitments align with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGS), which offer a global and universally agreed blueprint for achieving sustainable development. Like the SDGs, the Global Forest Goals are interconnected and integrate the economic, social, and environmental dimensions of sustainable forest management. Achievement of the Global Forest Goals is meant to foster and accelerate progress towards the SDGs, as well as other international forest-related instruments, processes, commitments, and objectives such as the Aichi Biodiversity Targets of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), the Paris Agreement adopted under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), and the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD).

An estimated 1.6 billion people, or 25% of the global population, rely on forests for their subsistence needs, livelihoods, employment, and income. Of the extreme poor in rural areas, 40% live in forest and savannah areas, and approximately 20% of the global population - especially women, children, landless farmers, and other vulnerable segments of society - look to forests to meet their food and income needs.3 For centuries, forests have provided socio-economic safety nets for people and communities in times of crises.