Key messages

1 Agricultural expansion continues to

be the main driver of deforestation
and forest fragmentation and the
associated loss of forest biodiversity.

CHAPTER 5 2 Actions to combat deforestation

and illegal logging have gathered

REVERSING pace over the past decade – as have

international agreements and

DEFORESTATION results-based payments.

AND FOREST 3 Large-scale forest restoration is

needed to meet the SDGs and

DEGRADATION to prevent, halt and reverse the loss

of biodiversity.
CHAPTER 5

REVERSING
DEFORESTATION AND
FOREST DEGRADATION
By far the greatest threat to forest biodiversit y is Global market pressures, dietar y preferences, and
loss of habitats and species due to deforestation loss and waste along agricultural value chains
and forest degradation. drive demand for agricultural and forest products,
which, in turn, drive deforestation and forest
This chapter looks at means of preventing, degradation (IPCC, 2019). The need to provide
halting and reversing the forest losses described food and energ y for a growing global population
in Chapters 2 and 3. Understanding factors that is, generally speaking, the leading cause of
lead to deforestation or forest degradation can loss of forests and forest biodiversit y. In Africa,
assist understanding of how to prevent further population pressure and povert y are the main
forest and biodiversit y loss. In the cases where threats to forest conser vation, driving poor
the damage has already been done, forest farmers to convert forests to cropland (Uusiv uori,
landscape restoration can begin to reverse the Lehto and Palo, 2002; Lung and Schaab, 2010)
losses. n and to har vest woodfuel at unsustainable levels.
Elsewhere, deforestation is driven by changes

DRIVERS OF CHANGE
in consumption patterns of more aff luent
5.1
populations. However, deforestation and forest

AFFECTING degradation are really driven by many political

and socio-economic forces interacting at the
BIODIVERSITY AND global to local levels (Lambin et al., 2001; Carr,
Suter and Barbier, 2005).
FOREST RESOURCES An analysis of national data for 46 tropical
Human population growth, demographic and subtropical countries representing about
trends and economic development have long 78 percent of the forest area in those climatic
been acknowledged as the primar y drivers of domains (Hosonuma et al., 2012) revealed that
environmental change. In the past 50 years, large-scale commercial agriculture (primarily
the human population has doubled and the cattle ranching and cultivation of soya bean
global economy has grown nearly fourfold. and oil palm) is the most prevalent driver of
Economic development has lifted billions deforestation, accounting for 40 percent of it.
of people out of povert y in many countries. Local subsistence agriculture accounts for an
However, nature across most of the globe has estimated 33 percent of deforestation, urban
been significantly altered in the process, with expansion for 10 percent, infrastructure for
mostly negative consequences for biodiversit y 10 percent and mining for 7 percent. In some
and often also for the most v ulnerable of societ y, cases, land-use change was preceded by forest
including indigenous peoples. The critical degradation, for example caused by unsustainable
pressures are well known: habitat change, loss or illegal wood removal. This analysis also
and degradation; unsustainable agricultural revealed that the drivers differed significantly
practices; invasive species; low resource-use between regions (Figure 29) and even
efficiency and overexploitation, including illegal within countries.
logging and trade in wildlife. Climate change and
f luctuation increasingly exacerbates the impact of
these pressures.

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 THE STATE OF THE WORLD’S FORESTS 2020

FIGURE 29
DRIVERS OF DEFORESTATION AND FOREST DEGRADATION BY REGION, 2000–2010

A) Proportion of deforestation drivers B) Area proportion of deforestation drivers C) Proportion of forest degradation drivers

100% 50 000 100%

90% 45 000 90%

Deforestation area [km2/y] 2000–2010

80% 40 000 80%

70% 35 000 70%

60% 30 000 60%

50% 25 000 50%

40% 20 000 40%

30% 15 000 30%

20% 10 000 20%

10% 5 000 10%

0% 0 0%
AFRICA LATIN (SUB)TROPICAL AFRICA LATIN (SUB)TROPICAL AFRICA LATIN (SUB)TROPICAL
AMERICA ASIA AMERICA ASIA AMERICA ASIA

Urban expansion Infrastructure Mining Livestock grazing in forest Uncontrolled fires

Agriculture (local/subsistence) Agriculture (commercial) Fuelwood charcoal Timber logging

NOTE: Continental-level estimations of the relative area proportion (A) and absolute net forest area change (km2/year; FAO, 2010b) for the period 2000–2010 (B) of deforestation
drivers; and of the relative disturbed forest area fraction of degradation drivers (C), based on data from 46 tropical and subtropical countries.
SOURCE: Hosonuma et al., 2012.

Importance of local context in determining use, local road access, commodit y prices and
cultural preferences. Understanding the local
drivers of forest loss contexts in which the drivers at different
People’s use of a resource is largely determined scales interact – including global and national
by perceived benefits, weighed against costs political and economic processes, institutional
incurred through access or institutional barriers frameworks governing access to resources,
(Schweik, 2000), but is also inf luenced by local the values of stakeholders and the ecological
and historical factors at different scales such characteristics of the resources (Figure 30) – can
as recognition of traditional forest tenure and help to inform management decisions (Ostrom
customar y management and use practices, local and Nagendra, 2006).
implementation of agreements for protected-area

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CHAPTER 5 REVERSING DEFORESTATION AND FOREST DEGRADATION

FIGURE 30
INTERACTIONS BETWEEN PROCESSES, POLICY AND DRIVERS OF RESOURCE USE INFLUENCING
LOCAL RESPONSES AND OUTCOMES FOR FOREST CONSERVATION

International conventions and

Global political and treaties, tariffs and subsidies,
economic processes world commodity markets

Trade policy, commodity markets,

Regional and legislation and institutions governing
national forces access to land and resources

Land rights, politics and corruption,

infrastructure, markets, protected
National and area management
local forces Local values

LOCAL RESPONSES

LOCAL RESOURCES

OUTOCOMES FOR
LOCAL FOREST
CONSERVATION

SOURCE: Modified from Giller et al., 2008.

As the example in Box 34 illustrates, simple of forests var y locally and can therefore not be
models of forest change drivers do not designed globally.
ref lect complex local social and ecological
realities. They lead to simplified institutional A good understanding of human activities
prescriptions, and inter ventions based on these leading to forest disturbances is instrumental
prescriptions therefore often do not meet their for the development of policies and actions in
objectives (see also Nel and Hill, 2013 and the context of REDD+ and the identification of
Molinario et al., 2020). It is vital to take into drivers of deforestation and forest degradation
account the dynamics of the underlying contexts is usually an initial step in developing REDD+
and drivers of forest change and to recognize strategies and action plans. The example from
their importance in inf luencing local people’s Zambia in Figure 31 illustrates the multiplicit y of
decisions. Incentives that inf luence people’s interactions among drivers. n
motivation to support sustainable management

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 THE STATE OF THE WORLD’S FORESTS 2020

BOX 34
COMPLEX DRIVERS LEADING TO DIFFERENT FOREST OUTCOMES ON MOUNT ELGON, UGANDA

Mount Elgon, Uganda, embodies the challenges of measured as assets, was more likely to drive
biodiversity conservation in densely populated areas. deforestation than poverty. Resettlement of pastoral
Its forests provide local communities with timber, people outside the forest in the 1990s and
fuelwood, non-wood resources and forest services, encouragement of them to take up agricultural
notably hydrological as the mountain is a major source livelihoods (maize) led to conflicts and massive forest
of water for the region. The forests have also been a encroachment despite low population densities (see the
source of agricultural land. Mount Elgon has a history trend in forest cover in the vicinity of “maize-based
of protection under various more or less exclusionary villages” in Figure A). High prices for cash crops were
management regimes. High population densities (up to associated with deforestation mainly in places with
1 000 people per square kilometre) exercise growing good access to markets for bulky seasonal crops (e.g.
pressure on forest resources. Conflicts over resource maize, cabbages, potatoes) and high levels of conflict
access and use are common (Norgrove and Hulme, over park boundaries (i.e. for the ”southern coffee-
2006; MERECP, 2007). based villages” after 2001 in Figure A).
Over the period 1973 to 2009, more than Forest degradation also varied according to the
25 percent of the area’s forest cover was lost but in needs associated with local land-use practices (e.g. the
some places forest also recovered (Sassen et al., need for staking material for bananas and beans or for
2013). Sassen (2014) used a combination of remote grazing land for cattle) and market access (e.g. the
sensing and field-based research to investigate how opportunity to sell charcoal). The study also found that
factors that varied across the park and during the time allowing the collection of forest resources, such as
period – including land-use goals, wealth levels, market fuelwood, under community management agreements
access and the relationship with park management – can be double-edged. On the one hand, it creates
led to these different outcomes for the forest. opportunities for destructive activities; on the other
The study found no simple direct relationship among hand, it can help to improve relations between local
population density, poverty and agricultural expansion people and park staff and thus facilitate improved
and deforestation on Mount Elgon over the 36-year management arrangements and better forest outcomes.
period. Population only drove deforestation under a These findings demonstrate that simple models
few circumstances, i.e. when protected-area based on single drivers of deforestation (e.g.
management institutions broke down in the 1970s and population or poverty) cannot explain local variation in
1980s and in those places where people became conservation outcomes. Rather, it is the local context
wealthy from growing coffee. When protected-area (e.g. law enforcement, collaborative management,
boundaries were re-established, forest recovery took political interference) under which drivers such as
place near some of the most-densely populated areas; population, wealth, market access and commodity
these included those areas where inhabitants were able prices operate that influence forest cover and
to invest in agricultural intensification, had difficulties degradation or regeneration outcomes over time, rather
of market access but an easily transportable cash crop than the drivers per se. This concept has important
(coffee), and had little conflict with park management implications for the design of more locally adapted and
(see the trend in forest cover in the vicinity of “other ecologically and socially sustainable management
coffee-based villages” after 1988 in Figure A). In general arrangements.
(although this too depended on the context), wealth,


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