Lead experts from FAO and UNDP discussed the most important forest report of the year, linking climate and economy.
On 2 May 2022, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO) released its 2022 State of the World’s Forests report, a bi-annual flagship publication that chronicles the most critical issues facing global forest ecosystems.
In light of its findings and the turbulence of the past two years, the deputy director of FAO’s Forestry Division Ewald Rametsteiner and the former director for The Rome Centre for Sustainable Development of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Musonda Mumba discussed how forests can aid climate goals and economic recovery.
“Around a quarter of people on the planet are employed in agriculture. As long as you work with farmers and help them add trees on farms through restoration and adding and diversifying income opportunities, you are making a difference in economic recovery. The same goes for villages in rural areas. If you are able to use some of the recovery funding to help them mobilise to restore their own ‘backyard’ that is degraded and unproductive by planting trees and building a future, then you are also helping the global economic crisis because they hopefully get a bit more self-sufficient and owning their development,” explained Ewald Rametsteiner.
Meanwhile, Musonda Mumba highlighted the report’s contribution: “We are hitting several nails with just one hammer. We look at biodiversity, climate change, land degradation, and livelihood economies because they are interconnected. We need to think about the system as a system. One of the conversations that will be happening in Abidjan [at UNCCD’s COP15, 9–20 May 2022] would be very much an element of accountability: how are our governments moving to action, how much investment does the actual national budget commit into restoration, where is the restoration happening, and how do you make sure that there is a balance.”
Musonda added that “we need to make sure that we are managing these [forests] ecosystems sustainably, beautifully, because they matter, for us, our health, and our very existence on this planet”, and concluded by saying that “There is no healthy economy on an unhealthy or broken planet.”
Watch here the conversation hosted by the Global Landscapes Forum, and read a summary of the 2022 State of the World’s Forests report here.
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The Global Landscapes Forum (GLF) is the world’s largest knowledge-led platform on integrated land use, connecting people with a shared vision to create productive, profitable, equitable & resilient landscapes. Learn more at www.globallandscapesforum.org
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