Smallholders' role in protecting our forests

According to a new report, smallholders and indigenous peoples can be effective forest managers, as they occupy nearly half of the world's forest and farm landscapes and are often invested in these areas.

"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, including about 14% of what is needed up to 2030 to keep planetary warming below 1,5°C, while safeguarding more than half the earth's terrestrial biodiversity.

• Restoring degraded lands and expanding agroforestry. About 1,5 billion hectares of degraded land would benefit from restoration, and increasing tree cover could boost agricultural productivity on another one billion hectares. Restoring degraded land through afforestation and reforestation could cost-effectively take between 0,9 GtCO,e and 1,5 GtCO₂e per year out of the atmosphere between 2020 and 2050.

• Sustainably using forests and building green value chains. This would help meet future demand for materials (with global consumption of all natural resources expected to more than double from 92 billion tons in 2017 to 190 billion tons in 2060), and underpin sustainable economies.

THE ROLE OF SMALLHOLDERS