With less than five years remaining until 2030, the United Nations will use this week’s Forum on Forests in New York to launch a major new assessment warning that progress towards global forest goals must accelerate. That is according to the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA), which will release the Global Forest Goals Report 2026 later today.
Whilst forests support the livelihoods of more than one billion people and remain central to climate stability and biodiversity, the report finds critical gaps in finance, governance and data are slowing progress against the six Global Forest Goals and 26 targets agreed under the UN Strategic Plan for Forests 2017–2030. Drawing on voluntary national reports and the latest forest-related global data, it sets out policy recommendations to halt deforestation, restore degraded lands and advance sustainable forest management before the deadline.
With the launch led from the UN Press Briefing Room at UN Headquarters in New York, Bjørg Sandkjær, Assistant Secretary-General for Policy Coordination and Inter-Agency Affairs at UN DESA, will appear alongside Juliette Biao, Director of the United Nations Forum on Forests Secretariat.
Although progress against the 2017 Strategic Plan has been documented through voluntary national reports, the 2026 assessment is the most comprehensive global stocktake before the 2030 deadline, with the UN flagging the urgency of scaling up action across finance, governance and data. It comes as Wood Central reported on the World Bank’s Liberia Sustainable Forest Economy Project this week, which is backing the country’s pivot from unprocessed log exports towards value-added domestic processing as a route to formal employment without accelerating the 30,000 hectares of annual forest loss.
Set against the broader Sustainable Development Goals, the report links forests to the achievement of climate stability, biodiversity protection and the livelihoods of communities across the developing world, with policy recommendations identifying where investment and reform must concentrate in the years to 2030.
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