The New York Declaration on Forests is a voluntary and non-legally binding political declaration which grew out of dialogue among governments, companies and civil society, spurred by the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and international security, security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be ...

Secretary-General’s Climate Summit held in

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

in 2014. The Declaration pledges to halve the rate of

deforestation Deforestation or forest clearance is the removal of a forest or stand of trees from land that is then converted to non-forest use. Deforestation can involve conversion of forest land to farms, ranches, or urban use. The most concentrated d ...

by 2020, to end it by 2030, and to restore hundreds of millions of acres of degraded land. The proposed land restoration is described as covering "an area larger than

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

". A voluntary Action Agenda accompanies the Declaration, providing "a guide to governments, companies, and organizations regarding the diverse set of actions that can achieve

he Declaration's He or HE may refer to: Language * He (pronoun), an English pronoun * He (kana), the romanization of the Japanese kana へ * He (letter), the fifth letter of many Semitic alphabets * He (Cyrillic), a letter of the Cyrillic script called ''He'' ...

transformational goals". A

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered on ...

-based consulting firm, Climate Advisers, wrote the draft of the Declaration. It has been signed by 37 governments, 20 sub-national governments, 53 multi-national companies, 16 groups representing indigenous communities and 63 non-government organizations. These included the EU member states,

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

Kenya ) , national_anthem = "Ee Mungu Nguvu Yetu"() , image_map = , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Nairobi , coordinates = , largest_city = Nairobi , ...

and

Ethiopia Ethiopia, , om, Itiyoophiyaa, so, Itoobiya, ti, ኢትዮጵያ, Ítiyop'iya, aa, Itiyoppiya officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country in the Horn of Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the ...

. The Declaration has been generally welcomed. The governments of Germany, Norway and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland issued a joint statement strongly supporting the declaration, and committing their governments to "strengthening existing and creating new partnerships with forest countries designing green growth strategies, with leading private sector companies taking deforestation out of their supply chains, and with the financial sector, civil society and other donor governments to align incentives, transform markets and tip the balance against forest destruction", along with a financial commitment to fund up to 20 new programmes subject to robust, credible proposals being put forward by developing countries. Some non-governmental organizations have also highlighted the limitations of the Declaration. In September 2019, the five-year assessment report
Progress on the New York Declaration on Forests Protecting and Restoring Forests - A Story of Large Commitments yet Limited Progress
was published.

References

Climate change policy in the United States Deforestation 2014 in the environment {{climate-change-stub

See also

References