Make progress on deforestation pledge, nations urged before COP30

Smoke and water vapor rises from a stack. Photographer: Bloomberg Creative Photos/Bloomberg Creative Collection

Civil society groups and academics urged governments Thursday to take actual steps toward fulfilling a stalled pledge to end deforestation before this year’s UN climate summit in the Brazilian Amazon.

But more than six million hectares (14.8 million acres) was razed in 2023 -- an area equivalent to nine million football pitches, according to an assessment in October by a broad coalition of forest-based activist and research groups.

The Forest Declaration Assessment, as the alliance is known, said leaders must show progress on reversing this trend before convening for COP30 in the Amazonian city of Belem in November.

“In 2025, governments must take bold action to get on track,” the coalition of nearly 40 non-governmental organisations, think-tanks and forest research bodies said in a document outlining policy proposals.

These could be tougher laws for conservation of environmental areas, or redressing some US$470 billion spent on agricultural subsidies that harm forests.

Other recommendations included greater involvement of indigenous people in forest protection, and promoting overall efforts to put forests on the global climate and environment agenda.

The latter could get a boost under COP30 president Andre Correa do Lago, a veteran climate negotiator who has flagged that Brazil would be underscoring the “extraordinary role already played by forests”.

The coalition also called on multilateral development banks to increase lending for forest protection and sustainable rural programmes.

This could involve restructuring or cancelling public debt for re-investment in nature conservation and making sure generally that developing countries have the incentives they need.

“To achieve these goals, donor countries should make financial support sufficient to incentivise forest countries to stop and reverse forest and ecosystem loss,” the report said.