Protecting and restoring forests: 2019 NYDF Assessment report

Five years after the launch of the NYDF, there is little evidence that its goals are on track, and achieving the 2020 NYDF targets is likely impossible. The 2019 NYDF Assessment report assesses progress toward all ten goals of the NYDF, five years after the Declaration's launch.

In September 2014, a broad coalition of governments, companies, civil society, and indigenous peoples’ organizations endorsed the New York Declaration on Forests (NYDF). 

Driven by the shared understanding that halting deforestation is essential to keep temperature increases below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, the endorsers adopted an ambitious declaration detailing ten goals. By committing to the ten goals of the declaration, endorsers have agreed to work toward halving tropical deforestation by 2020 and ending it by 2030. The NYDF also calls for the restoration of 150 million hectares of degraded landscapes and forestlands by 2020 and 350 million hectares by 2030.

Five years later, there is little evidence that these goals are on track, and achieving the 2020 NYDF targets is likely impossible.

The 2020 NYDF Assessment Report takes a stark look at trends across all ten goals of the NYDF and find progress to be wanting.

This report was supported by the Climate and Land Use Alliance (CLUA), the Good Energies Foundation, and the International Climate Initiative (IKI) of the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU) on the basis of a decision adopted by the German Bundestag via the NYDF Global Platform.