UN officials launch Global Forest Goals Report 2026 and urge faster action, more finance

United Nations officials on the opening day of the UN Forum on Forests launched the Global Forest Goals Report 2026 and urged stronger political commitment, greater financing and cross‑sector coordination to meet forest‑related targets before the 2030 SDG deadline.

Bjork Sankir, assistant secretary‑general for policy coordination and interagency affairs at the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA), said forests are ‘‘central to this effort’’ and emphasized that countries must accelerate progress on multiple Sustainable Development Goals that depend on healthy forests, including climate stability, food security and biodiversity protection.

Juliette Biao, director of the UN Forum on Forests Secretariat, summarized the report’s findings, saying the assessment draws on 48 voluntary national reports supplemented by the global forest resource assessment. She said progress is mixed: ‘‘Across the targets, two are off track, 17 are partially achieved, and seven are broadly met,’’ and added that ‘‘since 2015, the world has lost more than 4,000,000 hectares of forest.’’

Biao set out three priority actions to reverse trends: ‘‘turn commitment to implementation,’’ ‘‘scale up finance for sustainable forest management,’’ and ‘‘tackle the drivers of deforestation across sectors, including agriculture and infrastructure.’’ She warned that meeting the UN strategic plan for forests through 2030 will require stronger political will and more effective coordination across sectors.

Reporters pressed officials on specific threats and the data behind the report. Edith Lederer of the Associated Press highlighted a letter from indigenous groups in Latin America alleging that organized crime is undermining indigenous governance and their protection of biodiversity, asking what the Secretariat’s response was. Biao said indigenous peoples are represented in the Forum through the major groups mechanism and that domestic concerns can be elevated to the Forum so countries can share views and seek collective action, while acknowledging that ‘‘this is something that cannot be solved overnight.’’

Namo Abdullah of Roudao Media Network asked whether a University of Maryland GLAD Lab finding—that tropical deforestation fell by 36%—represents a turning point. Biao characterized the GLAD Lab results as reflecting ‘‘cumulative progress’’ rather than a single‑year anomaly and cited recent initiatives in countries such as Congo and Brazil and COP30‑level roadmaps as evidence of continuing trends. She said the 48 voluntary national reports represent roughly 50–51% of global forest area and noted that reporting remains voluntary; the Secretariat is offering capacity building to increase participation in the next reporting cycle.

Asked whether political shifts have reduced countries’ willingness to engage, Yvonne Murray of RTE said she was concerned about declining political appetite for climate issues. Biao replied that she had not detected reluctance to engage but that some countries lack human and financial capacity and that the move to an online reporting format poses challenges that the Secretariat is trying to address.

The briefing detailed gaps in financing for sustainable forest management without specifying aggregate funding needs or new funding commitments. Officials emphasized implementation and finance as priorities but did not announce formal actions or multilateral commitments during the session. The moderator closed the briefing by thanking the UN speakers.

The Forum’s technical teams offered to provide a list of countries that did not submit reports to a reporter who asked for specifics; no list or additional data was announced during the session.