‘Dismal’ health of world’s forests is threat to humanity, report warns | Deforestation

The health of the world’s forests has plunged to “dismal” levels and threatens the well-being of humanity, warns a damning report which highlights how financial systems are pouring money into land clearing and undermining efforts to reduce destruction.

Since 2021, when world leaders and business executives promised to end deforestation, the new study finds that forest loss has increased, driven by subsidies for livestock, monocultures, logging and other extractive industries.

Last year, 8.1 million hectares (20 million acres) of forest – an area roughly half the size of England – was burned, felled or felled, which was higher than the loss at the time of Cop26 in Glasgow, when the target of zero deforestation by 2030 was signed.

The world is now 63% behind in meeting this goal, according to the latest assessment of the Forest Declaration, compiled annually by a coalition of civil society and research organizations.

“Every year, the gap between commitments and reality widens, with devastating impacts on people, the climate and our economies,” said lead author Erin Matson of Climate Focus. “Forests are non-negotiable infrastructure for a livable planet. The continued failure to protect them endangers our collective prosperity.

“We already know what works to stop forest loss, but countries, companies and investors are only scratching the surface. And even these initial efforts face strong resistance from the standard-bearers of an economic system built on forest destruction.”

Behind this dark trend lies a grotesque imbalance between finances devoted to extraction and conservation. Agricultural industries, responsible for 85% of forest loss over the past decade, have received average annual subsidies worth $409bn (£307bn). This is almost 70 times more than the $5.9 billion in international public funding allocated each year to forest protection and restoration.

“Efforts to protect forests stand no chance as long as our economic system continues to reward quick profits from forest destruction,” said Franziska Haupt, partner at Climate Focus. “To truly combat deforestation, leaders must work collectively to implement bold and binding reforms that will transform the system that still generously rewards forest loss. »

A cause for growing concern is the spread of fires, which reached incredibly high levels in the Amazon last year after record droughts turned swaths of the normally humid rainforest into a tinderbox. Many fires are started deliberately to clear land and spread uncontrollably.

Last year, carbon dioxide released from the burning Amazon was seven times the average of the previous two years and higher than Germany’s total greenhouse gas emissions. The report’s authors said the fires were pushing the forest toward the point of no return.

Private financial institutions still tip the scales. A separate report published by Global Witness found that banks have made $26 billion from financing deforestation companies since the signing of the Paris agreement in 2015, or on average about $7 million per day.

American banks, led by Vanguard, JPMorgan Chase and BlackRock, gained the most in the world, with $5.4 billion, according to the monitoring group, based on data from Dutch consultancy Profundo.

This report reveals that European banks, topped by BNP Paribas and Rabobank, earned $3.5 billion, while British banks earned $1.2 billion, with HSBC, Aberdeen Group and Schroders achieving the highest returns. Chinese financial institutions also got $1.2 billion, despite the country’s green finance policy meant to restrict lending to companies with environmental or social governance concerns.

“We are seeing big banks financing a sell-off of the world’s rainforests,” said Alexandria Reid, head of forests at Global Witness. “And they are making obscene profits from their ashes.

“As long as it is more profitable to destroy forests than to protect them, the world will not meet its goal of stopping deforestation by 2030, with catastrophic consequences for the climate. If world leaders want to change this, they must act now to end the profiteering that fuels this crisis.”

Hopes for change are focused on next month’s Cop30 in Belém, the first climate summit held in the Amazon. Host country Brazil has shown in the past that it can significantly slow the pace of deforestation by more strictly enforcing the law. At Cop30, she will also propose a new conservation financing mechanism, the Tropical Forests Forever Facility, which aims to raise $125 billion for countries that preserve their standing forests.

“The overall numbers are dismal, but the future of forests doesn’t have to be,” Matson said. “New financial initiatives like the TFFF are paving the way for transformative change. If Cop30 delivers on its promise, we could tell a very different story next year – one of real progress.”

For this to work, financial institutions must also step up their efforts. They are expected to buy bonds worth four-fifths of the $125 billion the TFFF hopes to raise. That could help them assuage growing criticism that they are profiting from the destruction.

Elisabeth Hoch, head of the international portfolio at Climate & Company, which is part of the coalition that produced the forest assessment, said only 40% of financial institutions have a deforestation policy, even though forests are worth $150 trillion a year in economic value.

“I want businesses and financial institutions to leave the Cop with the feeling: ‘I have to do something or I will lose,’” Hoch said. “The police can create momentum. It depends on whether financial institutions finally have the courage to do something about it.”