The International Day of Forests is celebrated every year on 21st March, ever since the United Nations General Assembly declared it in 2012 as a way to raise awareness about the types of forests and their value to society.
The United Nations estimates that around 1.6 billion people directly depend on forests for food, shelter, income, etc., and that forests support 80% of the world’s terrestrial biodiversity. However, we are losing around 10 million hectares of forests per year.
Furthermore, the theme for this year was “forests and sustainable production and consumption”, which aims to highlight the unprecedented role of forests in climate change. As a sustainably managed forest would play a pivotal role in reducing Green House Gas (GHG) emissions and managing the impact of climate change.
According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s sixth assessment report, forests will face severe threats in the coming decades. Additionally, it discusses the environmental, social, and economic aspects of climate change.
Likewise, a recently released report of “Spread like Wildfire: The Rising Threat of Extraordinary Landscape Fires,” by UNEP and GRID Arendal, highlighted that climate change along with land-use change is making wildfires worse. Therefore, UNEP calls for governments to rethink about their approach.
According to a study by the United Nations Environment Programme, environmental conservation and restoration can generate investment and therefore alleviate poverty by creating 80 million green jobs that can positively impact rural economies.
Sustainable management of forests, and the efficient use of their resources, are therefore crucial to prevent climate change and its deadly consequences.