Context: As per the Global Forest Goals Report 2021, the COVID-19 pandemic has aggravated the challenges faced by countries in managing their forests.

• The report is prepared by the Department of Economic and Social Affairs of the United Nations.

Key highlights

• The report draws upon 52 voluntary national reports and 19 voluntary national contributions, representing 75 per cent of forests in the world.
• It provides an initial overview of progress towards achieving the six Global Forest Goals and their 26 associated targets as contained within the United Nations Strategic Plan for Forests 2030.

United Nations Strategic Plan for Forests 2030
The United Nations Strategic Plan for Forests 2017-2030 was created with a mission to:

• Promote sustainable forest management
• Enhance the contribution of forests and trees to 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

Global Forest Goals

• 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.
• It provides for increasing forest area by 3% by 2030 or by 120 million hectares.
• Forests presently cover nearly 4 billion hectares of the Earth’s land area.
• Enhance forest-based economic, social and environmental benefits, including the livelihoods of forest-dependent people.
• 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.
• Mobilize new and additional financial resources from all sources for the implementation of sustainable forest management and strengthen scientific and technical cooperation  and partnerships.
• Promote governance frameworks to implement sustainable forest management, including through the United Nations forest instrument, and enhance the contribution of forests to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
• Enhance cooperation, coordination, coherence and synergies on forest related issues at all levels, including within the United Nations system and across member organizations of the Collaborative Partnership on Forests, as well as across sectors and relevant stakeholders.