#Forests, Desertification and Biodiversity

Goal 15 – Forest Agriculture

Conserving and protecting our forests which cover 30% of our planet is a global issue. One and a half acres of forest is cut down every second. Twenty five percent of cancer fighting organisms and more than 121 natural remedies can be found in the rain forest and used as medicines. At the current rate of deforestation, it will take less than 100 years to destroy all the rainforests on the earth. Please join the awareness initiative and visit UN.org/sdgs/biodiversity to learn more about conserving our forests. Join the community. Make conserving forests your resolve.

Progress

UN leaders announced a global drive to protect and restore forests and a new focus on implementing partnerships to ensure healthy forests and the sustainable farming and livelihoods that depend on them. The initiatives included; protection of 400 million hectares of Forests – Global coalition of Indigenous Peoples, zero deforestation commitments from commodity producers and traders, New York Declaration on Forests – halting the loss of forests, Lima Challenge, and Landscape Restoration initiative. The governmental heads from major forest countries and partner countries committed to endorse forests as a key climate solution.  Sixteen countries recommitted to provide strong, collective and urgent action to promote equitable rural economic development while slowing, halting and reversing deforestation and massively increasing forest restoration.

Challenges

One billion people depend on forests for their livelihoods and forest loss is responsible for roughly 11 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions. Poverty, over-population and unequal land access are the main causes of man- made deforestation. Twenty eight thousand species are expected to become extinct by the next quarter of the century due to deforestation. Soil erosion, floods, wildlife extinction, increase in global warming, and climate imbalance are few of the effects of deforestation. Deforestation and desertification pose major challenges to sustainable development and have affected the lives and livelihoods of millions of people in the fight against poverty caused by human activities and climate change.