Global demand for agricultural and forest commodities is soaring. Predictions suggest that the world’s population will reach 9 billion by 2050, meaning that the demand for food and wood products will just keep rising.
The sad reality is that, over the past decades, meeting the rising demand for food and consumer goods has often come at the expense of forests, making commercial agriculture the main driver of tropical deforestation. Inefficient production schemes, missing or unclear economic and financial incentives for sustainable choices, poor governance structures, and complex supply chains have contributed to this outcome. The devastating haze and forest-fire crisis in Indonesia is a clear example of this negative cycle.
Stopping the destruction of forests is one of the easiest and most cost-effective ways to prevent catastrophic climate change. The international community is getting serious about the potential to optimize the role of forests in climate change mitigation and adaptation. And negotiators at the UN climate conference in Paris did indeed include mechanisms for addressing deforestation as a major means of accomplishing that goal.
Following a strong Paris agreement – including much-needed acknowledgment of the critical role that forests play in combatting climate change – there has never been a better time to work together to protect the world’s remaining tropical forests.
We don’t have all the answers and the road ahead will not be easy, but here are five reasons for hope:
  1. The Amazon has paved the way
Brazil has successfully decoupled agricultural production from deforestation in the Amazon rainforest – where agriculture output has been growing while deforestation rates have dropped substantially. Since 2005, through a combination of public policy and private-sector actions, the amount of deforestation has been reduced by 70% – keeping about 3.5 billion tons of carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere.
Figure 1: Forest-smart agriculture in Brazil
forestsmart_ag2
  1. The Paris agreement sets the foundation for more progress
The Paris agreement sent a strong signal on the importance of forests. All countries agreed on simple but strong language that operationalizes forest protection. The inclusion of REDD+ (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation) as a stand-alone piece – Article 5 – in the final Paris agreement sends a clear signal that the era of mass forest destruction is drawing to a close.
  1. Momentum has been built for place-based partnerships
The outcome from Paris also provides an excellent basis on which public-private partnerships can convert entire jurisdictions to increase production while improving forest protection. As highlighted Better Growth with Forests from the World Economic Forum Global Agenda Council on Forests, the challenges range from land tenure and rights, data information and transparency, and managing long-term finance for forest protection. The solution models must therefore be creative and nationally appropriate for transformational outcomes.
One promising way of creating a “triple win” is to deliver rural development and domestic economic growth, while protecting and restoring forests on a large scale.
The model provides jurisdictions with the design, technical support and funding to develop implementable plans, while creating a global community of purpose to pilot and create investment-grade, replicable partnerships and solutions. What we now need is for more subnational leaders and consumer goods companies to join the Tropical Forest Alliance 2020 (TFA2020). This will allow all parties to come together through large bilateral and multilateral programmes to support jurisdictions (national or subnational governments) in developing and implementing landscape-level plans to reduce deforestation, while putting smallholders and communities at the heart of the agenda.
  1. Livelihoods depend on our success
Indigenous people are, by definition, outsiders, due to their geographic and political remoteness. They make up anywhere from 5% of the world’s population and anywhere between 10% and 30% of the world’s poorest people, according to the UN. Yet they hold the vital knowledge of generations on how to live with nature and be in balance and harmony with the natural world. More than 1.6 billion people worldwide depend on forests for food, medicines and fuel, as well as their jobs and livelihoods. This includes 60 million indigenous people, who are almost entirely dependent on forests for their unique cultures and livelihoods.
  1. We are many
The number of people focused on this agenda is growing. Through the New York Declaration on Forests, about 180 nations, companies, indigenous people and other organizations committed to halve deforestation by 2020 and stop it by 2030, while at the same time achieving ambitious conservation, reforestation and forest restoration targets. Through the Consumer Goods Forum companies are aligning standards and looking for solutions. And the TFA2020 – a global public-private partnership where partners take individual and combined voluntary actions to reduce the tropical deforestation associated with the sourcing of commodities such as palm oil, soy, beef, and paper and pulp – brings together 40 plus members representing the private sector, northern and southern countries, civil society and indigenous people and local communities.
The critical mass of forest nations, donor governments, global agricultural commodity companies, consumer goods companies and funding partners that are now behind these goals is unprecedented.
We want to be optimistic – and this is indeed the moment in time to be so. But, many challenges lie ahead. For all of us, 2016 is an opportunity to collaborate and show the proof of implementation.
Author: Jeff Seabright is Chief Sustainability Officer and Co-Chair of the World Economic Forum Global Agenda Council on Forests
Image: Deforestation is seen in a village in Carhuaz in the Andean region of Ancash, Peru, on November 28, 2014. REUTERS/ Mariana Bazo