Instantly or not directly, all of us rely upon forests

Due to their significance to life on Earth, forests have gained the nickname “lungs of the planet” for his or her function in producing oxygen and absorbing carbon dioxide.

Protecting 31% of the worldwide land space, forests are additionally house to most of Earth’s terrestrial biodiversity—the number of life varieties on the land’s floor.

This biodiversity offers over half of humanity with medicines, livelihoods and meals, with the forests’ important vitamins sustaining hundreds of thousands of individuals, particularly these dwelling close to and inside forests.

However these forest ecosystems are in peril.

Every year we lose 10 million hectares of forests because of deforestation by clearing or harvesting, and roughly 70 million hectares of forests are degraded by fires.

In a tragic irony, although forests present varied advantages, together with meals and vitamins, agricultural enlargement into the forested panorama continues to be the first driver of deforestation, forest fragmentation and the related lack of biodiversity.

Forests and livelihoods

Forests present greater than 86 million jobs and assist the livelihoods of many extra.

They’re the first supply of rural earnings in lots of international locations and areas, contributing considerably to the livelihoods of rural folks.

Over 90% of individuals dwelling in excessive poverty are depending on forests for no less than a part of their livelihoods.

For the poorest households in rural areas, forests and timber can present as much as 20% of their earnings, enabling them to entry nutritious meals and diversify their food regimen.

However forests contribute extra to the livelihoods of rural folks by subsistence use of forest merchandise like meals, fodder and medicinal crops, in addition to money earnings obtained from the sale of non-timber forest merchandise.

Forests additionally present cooking vitality to make meals edible for rural households, with wooden nonetheless being utilized by greater than two billion folks for cooking.

Forests assist agriculture

Recognizing the essential function of forests in meals safety, the theme of the United Nations Worldwide Day of Forests (IDF) 2025 is “Forest and Meals,” celebrating the essential roles of forests, each direct and oblique, in meals safety, vitamin and livelihoods.

At first, forests are important to agriculture and assist rural farming practices by varied means.

For instance, forests assist preserve the soil wholesome and retain water, by regulating the motion of water and lowering the depth of run-off.

This helps stop the incidence of flash floods and maintains the supply of water for crops and other people.

Wholesome forests are house to crucial pollinators like bees, some species of flies, butterflies, moths, beetles, birds, bats and different vertebrates that assist crop pollination and enhance crop yields and high quality.

In a single documented case, forest-based pollinators elevated espresso yields by 20% inside one kilometer of a forest.

In addition they improved espresso high quality in areas adjoining to forests in Costa Rican landscapes that embody espresso farms, forest fragments and different agricultural makes use of.

Forests regulate temperatures, act as a pure barrier towards the wind for crops and improve rainfall. All of this helps to maintain agriculture and finally contributes to placing meals on our tables.

Meals safety and nature’s supermarkets

Greater than 5 billion folks all over the world use forest and non-timber forest merchandise for meals, drugs and supporting their livelihoods.

With such a various vary of meals and different providers, we are able to consider forests as nature’s supermarkets.

Forests contribute to the meals safety of communities by offering a wealthy supply of untamed meals like nuts, fruits, seeds, roots, tubers, leaves, mushrooms, honey, wild meat and bugs.

Wild meat from forests is a crucial supply of proteins and micronutrients, notably for Indigenous peoples and native communities in tropical areas.

Greater than 3,200 wild animal species have been used as meals.

Tree-based meals function a security web, particularly through the seasonal shortfalls of meals in rural households, whereas enabling inhabitants to answer shocks and fill the hole within the meals provide.

Regardless of being critically essential for sustenance, these wild-harvested meals are sometimes neglected as a part of a meals system that helps improved meals safety for no less than a billion folks.

Water safety

Moreover tangible advantages, forests not directly assist our meals safety and vitamin by the important function they play in Earth’s water system.

Forested watersheds present greater than 75% of our recent water—contributing to each the meals and water safety of over half the world’s inhabitants.

Forests performing as pure water reservoirs regulate water availability, high quality and distribution and keep constant water provides for agriculture.

This ensures steady crop manufacturing and livestock sustenance whereas sustaining protecting capabilities like stopping soil erosion and preserving fertile land mandatory for farming.

Meals system transformation

Whereas deforestation has declined from 16 million hectares per yr within the Nineties, the annual lack of 10 million hectares of forest between 2015 and 2020 continues to be alarmingly excessive.

Present meals manufacturing practices inflicting deforestation embody cattle ranching, palm oil and soybean manufacturing.

These drive the conversion of forests for agricultural manufacturing, ensuing within the lack of forested areas and their related ecosystem providers.

Forest conversion for agriculture is pushed by each home and worldwide demand for meals and forest merchandise, and largely by the consumption of agricultural and forest merchandise in economically developed international locations.

This threatens the capability of the world’s forests to ship enough items and providers, together with meals safety.

Improvements like agroecological manufacturing assist restore the productiveness of degraded agricultural land and assist to scale back stress on forests.

Agroecology helps combine ecological rules into farming to enhance efficiency and reduce the unfavorable impacts of agriculture on the setting.

Frequent agroecological practices embody cowl cropping, agroforestry, intercropping, mulching, soil and water conservation, and environment friendly use of fertilizers.

Success requires a contribution from shoppers and corporations, who may help by buying merchandise from sustainable deforestation-free provide chains from international locations adhering to zero deforestation commitments.

The European Union Deforestation Regulation (EUDR)—which will probably be carried out from 30 December 2025—is a much-needed step on this route.

The EUDR is designed to scale back the affect of the EU client market on forests globally by stopping merchandise derived from agricultural enlargement from getting into the EU.

This could foster elevated environmental and social duty for EU firms desirous to import agricultural and forest-based merchandise.

Instantly or not directly, all of us rely upon forests. Defending and restoring our forests is not going to solely profit the forests themselves, however all these whose livelihoods are supported by the varied vary of ecosystem providers forests present.