COP 26 Side Event: Upscaling Actions to Turn the Tide on Deforestation High-level Dialogue

COP 26

Side Event:

Upscaling Actions to Turn the Tide on Deforestation

High-level Dialogue

Opening Remarks

Dr. QU Dongyu, FAO Director-General

Delivered by Eduardo Mansur, Director of Office of Climate Change, Biodiversity and Environment of FAO

6 November 2021

 

Excellences,

Ladies and Gentlemen, 

1.         The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) leads international efforts to defeat hunger and poverty, based on robust science-based evidence.

 

2.         For effective decision-making and efficient actions.

 

3.         The kind of actions we saw at the beginning of this week with the Glasgow Leaders’ Declaration on Forests and Land Use.

 

4.         According to FAO’s latest Global Forest Resources Assessment, we have lost 420 million hectares of forest since 1990 – an area the size of India and Nigeria combined.

 

5.         But to stop deforestation, we need to know more than just the area of forest lost.

 

6.         We need to know where and why it happens, and how to act.

 

7.         This can be achieved by combining the latest technological innovations with local expertise on the ground.

 

8.         By using vast digital archives of satellite data and user-friendly tools developed in collaboration with NASA and Google, FAO empowered more than 800 experts from almost 130 countries to produce new information on the drivers of deforestation.

 

9.         Analysing over 400,000 samples, this global Remote Sensing Survey, shows that deforestation continues to be driven mainly by agricultural expansion – conversion of forest to cropland and livestock grazing.

 

10.       Deforestation can be stopped! We have solutions available!

 

11.       Increasing agri-food productivity to meet the new demands of a growing population and halting deforestation are not mutually exclusive objectives.

 

12.       More than 20 developing countries have already shown that it is possible to do so.

 

13.       Latest data confirms that deforestation has been successfully reduced in South America and Asia.

 

14.       We need to continue along this path.

 

15.       A green and climate-resilient agriculture that reverses biodiversity loss, reduces greenhouse gas emissions and enhances adaptation and resilience is essential to end poverty and hunger, and to address the climate crisis.

 

16.       FAO’s new Strategic Framework 2022-2031 will guide the Organization’s work to transform agri-food systems to be more efficient, inclusive, resilient and sustainable for the achievement of the Four Betters:

 

17.       Better production, better nutrition, a better environment and a better life for all, leaving no one behind! 

 

18.       FAO, together with UNDP, UNEP along with Members, supports more than 60 countries to implement strategies to reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation.

 

19.       FAO is also co-leading the Decade on Ecosystem Restoration together with UNEP - an important opportunity to accelerate and transform innovative ideas into ambitious actions on the ground.

 

20.       The recent UN Food Systems Summit formed a Coalition between producer and consumer countries, private companies and international organizations to deliver deforestation and conversion-free agri-food supply chains.

 

21.       The Collaborative Partnership on Forests, which unites 15 international organizations, is developing a Joint Initiative to Turn the Tide on Deforestation, to complement existing actions and scale up impact.

 

22.       The promising pledges and commitments this week indicated a stronger coherent move for real action.

 

23.       Now we must turn words into reality – we must roll up our sleeves and get to plant more trees!

 

24.       This calls for strategic partnerships at all levels.

 

25.       It means working better and more together – together with governments, the private sector, academic institutions, Indigenous Peoples and local communities, women and youth – in an effective, efficient and coherent manner.

 

Dear Colleagues,

 

26.       As we build back better and greener from the pandemic, we need to accelerate our actions to turn the tide on deforestation and scale up our hard-won progress.

 

27.       Our generation must be the one that halts deforestation – for a greener future for our future generations!

 

28.       Let’s make this happen!

 

29.       Thank you.