Excellencies,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Each year, on 21 March, the global community comes together to acclaim the importance of forests in our everyday lives. Last year, many of the events for the International Day of Forests could not take place with the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. This year, virtual platforms are enabling us to gather and observe this important day.
Forests provide so much to so many. They provide income and livelihoods for rural populations, particularly for indigenous peoples and other forest-dependent communities. During this pandemic, the forestry sector has provided essential health products – from face masks, to cleaning supplies, to ethanol for sanitizers. In these times of social distancing, green spaces, urban parks and forests have been vital for the health and wellness of communities. Furthermore, healthy and well-managed forests serve as a natural buffer against the transmission of zoonoses, thus reducing the risk of future pandemics.
Yet, despite their obvious importance, forests continue to be under threat. Every year, seven million hectares of natural forests are converted to other land uses such as large-scale commercial agriculture, and other economic activities. And while the rate of deforestation has slowed over the past decade, tree-cover loss has continued unabated in the tropics – largely due to human and natural causes.
As natural ecosystems, forests continue to be impacted by environmental degradation, fragmentation and unsustainable land-use patterns. They are vulnerable to invasive pests, diseases and fires – many of which are expected to only get worse due to climate change. So, if we want forests to continue to provide us with multi-faceted services and products in the future, we have to take steps to safeguard them now.
We have our global framework for sustainable forest management, in the United Nations Strategic Plan for Forests 2030. This is aligned with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Paris Agreement on climate change, through its Global Forest Goals and associated targets.
The Strategic Plan underscores that urgent action is needed to:
- reverse forest loss,
- increase the world’s forest area by three per cent, and
- eradicate extreme poverty for forest-dependent people.
It also offers a nature-friendly solution to many of our most pressing challenges, such as combatting climate change and biodiversity loss. And it provides an essential component in COVID-19 green recovery and economic stimulus packages.
Dear Colleagues,
The COVID-19 pandemic has been a harsh wake-up call. We have seen many hard-earned development gains reverse, and systemic inequalities worsen. At the same time, we have a unique opportunity to take concerted action to recover better and stronger, re-think and re-engineer our economies, and adopt more sustainable and green solutions.
In this Decade of Action to deliver the SDGs by 2030, and as we begin the new Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, let us use this International Day of Forests to send a strong message. Let us restore and protect our forests, our planet, and all its vital ecosystems for generations to come.
I thank you.