This study aims to investigate activities (drivers) that lead to deforestation and forest degradation. The synthesis report contains a global assessment of key drivers, explores the relevance of drivers in REDD+ policy development and implementation and key interventions to address proximate and underlying drivers, the role of drivers for national forest monitoring and for developing forest reference emission levels and/or forest reference levels.

One of the study findings relevant to wood energy is that “fuelwood collection and charcoal production are the main forest degradation drivers on the African continent, while commercial timber extraction and selective logging activities are the main drivers of forest degradation in Latin America and (sub)tropical Asia”.