Significantly reduce deforestation and degradation derived from infrastructure development and extractive industries well before 2030.
Key Messages
Progress toward Goal 3 —reducing deforestation from infrastructure and extractive developments— is slow. Without dramatic shifts in economic development strategies—away from a reliance on extraction, exploitation, and consumption, and toward alternative pathways which value forests and people—the world will not meet its ambitious goals for sustainable development, climate, and forests.
While there is increasing awareness of the forest impacts of mining, and infrastructure’s role as a “driver of drivers” of forest loss is well understood, overall efforts to stem these losses have not resulted in significant progress.
Dozens of countries have made progress in aligning their macroeconomic planning processes and policies with forest goals through developing national forest strategies, adopting forest management plans, and designating protected areas. However, implementation of these plans is progressing slowly, while some countries are rolling back forest protections, accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Corporate transparency related to forests in the extractives and infrastructure sectors remains quite limited as few companies focus on forest risk.
Voluntary sustainability initiatives have emerged to guide the extractives industry and infrastructure developers; uptake of these standards is small compared to the overall size of these sectors.
Indigenous peoples, local communities, and civil society actors have mobilized to gain access to an influence planning to protect forest lands from harmful development. These environmental defenders face increasing violence.
Further Resources
Extractive industries and infrastructure-driven deforestation - Progress since 2014
The Forest Declaration Assessment and the Forest Declaration Platform have been supported over the years by the Climate and Land Use Alliance, the Good Energies Foundation, the Bezos Earth Fund, the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU) of Germany, and the International Climate Initiative (IKI) of the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU), which supported this initiative on the basis of a decision adopted by the German Bundestag.
This project is supported by the Climate and Land Use Alliance and the Good Energies Foundation. Research that contributed to this project is part of the International Climate Initiative (IKI). The Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU) supports this initiative on the basis of a decision adopted by the German Bundestag.
