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State of the World’s Forests 2022

  • 07 May 2022

The State of the World’s Forests (SOFO) 2022 report was released by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO).

Major Findings of the Report

Loss of Forest

  • The world has lost 420 million hectares (mha), approximately 10.34 per cent of its total forest area in the last 30 years.
  • The 420 mha of forests have been lost between 1990 and 2020, due to deforestation, though forests cover 4.06 billion ha (31 per cent) of the earth’s geographical area.

Declining Trend of Deforestation

  • The rate of deforestation was declining, 10 mha of forests were lost every year between 2015 and 2020. Earlier, some 47 mha of primary forests were lost between 2000 and 2020.

Concern for Forest in Tropics

  • Unless additional action is taken, an estimated 289 mha of forests would be deforested between 2016 and 2050 in the tropics alone, resulting in the emission of 169 GtCO2e.

Deforestation & Diseases

  • SOFO 2022, stated that 15 per cent of 250 emerging infectious diseases have been linked to forests. It further stated that 30 per cent of new diseases, reported since 1960, can be attributed to deforestation and land-use-change.
  • Deforestation, particularly in the tropics, has been associated with an increase in infectious diseases such as dengue fever and malaria.

Population Pressure

  • SOFO 2022 further stated that the world population is projected to reach 9.7 billion people by 2050, which will increase competition for land, as the demand for food for this large population will rise by 35 to 56 per cent by the 2050s.
  • The annual global consumption of all natural resources combined is expected to more than double from 92 billion tonnes in 2017 to 190 billion tonnes in 2060 due to increases in population size and affluence.

Biomass Extraction

  • It further stated that annual biomass extraction was expected to reach 44 billion tonnes by 2060, from 24 billion tonnes in 2017. Demand for forest-based biomass is expected to rise further, mainly due to construction and packaging.

Suggestions

Against the backdrop of the Glasgow Leaders’ Declaration on Forests and Land Use and the pledge of 140 countries to eliminate forest loss by 2030 and to support restoration and sustainable forestry, the 2022 edition of The State of the World’s Forests (SOFO) explores the potential of three forest pathways for achieving green recovery and tackling multidimensional planetary crises, including climate change and biodiversity loss.

Three Pathways to achieve Green Recovery:

  1. Halting deforestation and maintaining forests.
  2. Restoring degraded lands and expanding agroforestry.
  3. Sustainably using forests and building green value chains.