Deforestation’s impact is staggering, ranking it as the third-largest emitter globally if it were a country. From 1990 to 2020, the world saw a loss of 420 million hectares of forests, with a further 4 million hectares disappearing in 2022 alone—equivalent to 11 football fields per minute. The FAO’s 2022 State of the World’s Forests report highlights the economic undervaluation of forests, despite their crucial ecosystem services and potential for nature-based solutions that support global economic recovery, nature preservation, and growth.
The International Day of Forests, established by the United Nations General Assembly in 2012, is celebrated on 21 March to promote the significance of all forest types. This year’s theme, “Forests and Innovation: New Solutions for a Better World,” showcases the vital role of technology and innovation in forest conservation, combating deforestation, habitat degradation, and climate change.
SEI is dedicated to fulfilling SDGs 12 (sustainable consumption and production), 13 (urgent climate change action), and 15 (sustainable terrestrial ecosystems management). In observance of the International Day of Forests, SEI highlights its latest initiatives to protect and enhance forest ecosystems:
1. Enhancing financial institutions’ understanding of deforestation links. SEI, in partnership with Global Canopy and Zoological Society of London, launched the Forest IQ platform. This initiative improves financial institutions’ insight into deforestation, leveraging expert data analysis to tackle deforestation effectively.
2. Driving transparency for international trade associated with tropical deforestation. Collaborating with Global Canopy, SEI’s Trase initiative enhances transparency in the global trade of deforestation-linked commodities. Trase, covering over 70% of this trade, stands as the most comprehensive database for linking deforestation hotspots with global commodity markets.
3. Interacting with data on the global environmental impacts of consumption and production. The Commodity Footprints tool, created by SEI York’s Sustainable Consumption and Production (SCP) group, offers an interactive platform to assess the environmental impacts, including deforestation, of over 160 agricultural commodities across approximately 200 countries. This tool is a culmination of a multi-year collaboration with Defra and the Joint Nature Conservation Committee.
4. Recommending actions for the implementation of deforestation-free supply chains. SEI researchers contributed to reports for the German Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development and Belgium’s Federal Public Service for Heath, Food Chain Safety, and Environment, assessing contributions to deforestation through agricultural commodity trade. These studies aid the formulation of strategies for deforestation-free supply chains.
5. Provided evidence to guide the UK Government’s efforts to tackle deforestation. SEI’s input to the House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee report has shaped the UK Government’s deforestation strategies. Utilizing SEI’s Global Environmental Impacts of Consumption (GEIC) Indicator, this guidance reflects the UK’s role in global deforestation through its agricultural commodity consumption.
With information from SEI.org
TYT Newsroom
