Advancing the understanding of forest degradation on a global scale

A major contributor to climate change and biodiversity decline, forest degradation remains poorly defined – complicating global efforts to monitor, understand and address a problem that affects millions who depend on forests for their livelihoods. Despite growing awareness of this challenge, inconsistent interpretations of forest degradation obscure its extent and nature. As a result, there is a growing need for a standardized global definition.

As the highest forestry statutory body of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the 26th session of the Committee on Forestry “recommended FAO to lead discussions with Members, as well as with relevant international organizations as appropriate, to define “forest degradation” within the FRA process.”

In response to this recommendation, the secretariat of FAO’s Global Forest Resources Assessment (FRA) recently established a global taskforce to create a standard definition for this term. The taskforce is composed of a representative group of FAO Member countries, international organizations and technical experts specializing in diverse forest biomes and in assessing, monitoring and addressing forest degradation. 

With the aim to reach a consensus on the key criteria for an internationally agreed definition and develop a proposal based on this, the group regularly meets online to jointly examine the core components of international and national definitions. The proposed definition will go through several open consultation processes before it is presented to the FAO Committee on Forestry for final recommendations.

“Reducing forest degradation has been an important objective in many multilateral agreements for decades,” said Anssi Pekkarinen, FAO Senior Forestry Officer. “However, monitoring global progress towards this goal has been challenging largely due to the lack of a commonly agreed global definition. The taskforce is working to close this gap and guide meaningful action.”