More than 100 global leaders vow to end deforestation by 2030

More than a hundred global leaders vowed late Monday to reverse deforestation and land degradation by the end of the decade, backed by $19 billion in public and private funds to conserve and restore forests.

Leaders of Brazil, Indonesia, and the Democratic Republic of Congo, which together account for 85% of the world’s forests, backed the joint statement during the COP26 climate talks in Glasgow.

According to a statement released on behalf of the leaders, the Glasgow Leaders’ Declaration on Forest and Land Use will cover more than 13 million square miles of forests.

“We will have a chance to end humanity’s long history as nature’s conqueror, and instead become its custodian,” said British leader Boris Johnson. 

On Tuesday, a slew of new government and private projects aimed at achieving that goal were announced, including billions in promises for indigenous forest guards and sustainable agriculture. 

According to the non-profit World Resources Institute, forests absorb around 30% of carbon dioxide emissions. They eliminate the emissions from the atmosphere, preventing the climate from warming.

This natural climatic buffer, however, is fast dwindling. According to WRI’s deforestation tracking effort Global Forest Watch, the world lost 258,000 square kilometres of forest cover in 2020. That’s more than twice the size of the United Kingdom. 

The agreement signed on Monday dramatically extends on a similar pledge made by 40 countries in 2014 as part of the New York Declaration of Forests, and goes further than ever in laying out the resources needed to achieve that goal.

Twelve countries, including the United Kingdom, have agreed to pay 8.75 billion pounds ($12 billion) in public funding to developing countries between 2021 and 2025 to support efforts to restore degraded land and combat wildfires. 

More than 30 private sector investors, including Aviva, Schroders, and AXA, would contribute at least another 5.3 billion pounds. 

By 2025, the investors, which represent $8.7 trillion in assets under management, have agreed to stop investing in deforestation-related activities.

On Tuesday, five countries, including the United Kingdom and the United States, and a group of international charities promised $1.7 billion in funding to promote indigenous peoples’ forest conservation and land rights. 

Indigenous communities, according to environmentalists, are the finest guardians of the forest, often safeguarding it from loggers and land grabbers.

The goal of COP26 is to ensure the efforts are kept alive to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) over pre-industrial levels. Forests and so-called nature-based solutions, according to scientists, will be critical to achieving that goal.