“Trees, forests and sustainable forestry can help the world recover from the COVID-19 pandemic and combat looming environmental crises such as climate change and biodiversity loss. But this requires societies to better recognise the considerable value of forests and their crucial roles in building inclusive, resilient and sustainable economies.
There are three pathways along which societies, communities and individual landowners, users and managers can derive more tangible value from forests and trees while addressing environmental degradation, preventing future pandemics, increasing resilience and transforming economies. These are:
• Halting deforestation and maintaining forests. This could avoid emitting between two gigatons (Gt) and 3,6Gt of carbon dioxide equivalent (GtCO2e) per year between 2020 and 2050,
