On 27 April 2017, the UN General Assembly adopted the UN Strategic Plan for Forests 2017-2030. The first-ever common UN forest strategy is a wide-reaching framework aimed at halting deforestation and forest degradation. The plan had been forged at a special session of the UN Forum on Forests in January.

It features a set of six Global Forest Goals and associated targets to be reached by 2030, which are voluntary and universal:

• Global Forest Goal 1 - Reverse the loss of forest cover worldwide through sustainable forest management, including protection, restoration, afforestation and reforestation, and increase efforts to prevent forest degradation and contribute to the global effort of addressing climate change.
• Global Forest Goal 2 - Enhance forest-based economic, social and environmental benefits, including by improving the livelihoods of forest dependent people.
• Global Forest Goal 3 - Increase significantly the area of protected forests worldwide and other areas of sustainably managed forests, as well as the proportion of forest products from sustainably managed forests.
• Global Forest Goal 4 - Mobilize significantly increased, new and additional financial resources from all sources for the implementation of sustainable forest management and strengthen scientific and technical cooperation and partnerships.
• Global Forest Goal 5 - Promote governance frameworks to implement sustainable forest management, including through the UN Forest Instrument, and enhance the contribution of forests to the 2030 Agenda.
• Global Forest Goal 6 - Enhance cooperation, coordination, coherence and synergies on forest-related issues at all levels, including within the UN System and across Collaborative Partnership on Forests member organizations, as well as across sectors and relevant stakeholders.

Forests presently cover 30 per cent of the Earth’s land area, or nearly 4 billion hectares. According to the UN, an estimated 1.6 billion people depend on sustainably managed forests for subsistence, livelihood, employment and income generation.

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