UN: Window is closing to restore the world’s forests, FAO says

# Overview Organization (FAO) says the global opportunity to restore forests is shrinking. The FAO's State of the World's Forests report finds widespread loss and growing pressures on remaining forests, while restoration efforts lag behind public commitments.

# What the FAO report found More than 489 million hectares of forest have been cleared since 1990, and an even larger area is now degraded. Forests still cover about 4.14 billion hectares — roughly a third of Earth's land surface — and they store around 714 gigatonnes of carbon. They also contain as much as 80% of the world's terrestrial biodiversity and provide livelihoods for nearly one-third of the global population.

Over the past 20 years, national, regional and global initiatives pledged to restore more than 1 billion hectares of land. The FAO reports that barely a fifth of that pledged area is actually being restored. The agency says progress is uneven and insufficient to meet rising demands for food, timber and ecosystem services.

# Direct threats and exposure The report highlights multiple, overlapping threats. Fires affect about 127 million hectares of forest each year. Insects, diseases and extreme weather events add further damage. Those pressures compound ongoing drivers of loss such as agricultural expansion, pollution and resource extraction.

# Why it matters for food security and economies The FAO frames forest and landscape restoration as a strategic investment in resilient agrifood systems and rural development. Restoring 1 billion hectares is estimated in the report to generate about $1.8 trillion in benefits per year. The agency links healthy forests to stable rainfall patterns, reduced hunger and the long-term viability of forest-based economies.

Qu Dongyu, FAO director-general, is quoted saying that delayed or poorly designed restoration will raise long-term costs, worsen inequalities and risk locking landscapes into unsustainable paths. He urges scaling up effective restoration now because the "window for action is narrowing."

# Barriers to scaling restoration The report identifies gaps between pledges and delivery. Key constraints include limited political commitment at national level, insufficient funding and technical capacity, and supply-side bottlenecks — for example, shortages of seedlings and appropriate planting material in some regions. The report also points to uneven governance and weak incentives for landholders to participate in long-term restoration.

# What governments can prioritize The FAO calls for making forest restoration a national priority. That implies aligning restoration with food-security planning, investing in nursery and seed systems, strengthening landscape governance, and designing restoration programs that deliver social and economic benefits to local communities. The report stresses that poorly designed projects or delayed action will be more costly and less effective.

# Bottom line The report presents a simple arithmetic and political problem: demand for land-based products and services is rising even as forests are lost and degraded. Promises to restore over 1 billion hectares have not translated into widespread action, and the FAO warns that the remaining opportunity to reverse declines is narrowing. The agency recommends faster, better-funded and better-governed restoration linked to livelihoods and food systems.