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Time to restore human relations with nature and biodiversity
Forests are home to most of the world’s terrestrial biodiversity — they provide us with a wide array of services, ranging from cleaner air and water to natural foods consumed by one billion people and cooking fuel for 2.4 billion people. Forests also provide more than 86 million green jobs. Obtaining sustainable benefits from forests means paying more attention to their needs, which are actually our needs too.
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Illustration. (Shutterstock/Maciek A)
T
he COVID-19 pandemic is a deep and lasting shock at global level; we all know that returning to “business as usual” is not an option. It is imperative that we perceive the crisis as an opportunity to rebuild — and even improve — livelihoods in a sustainable way. High on the agenda is restoring harmony to humanity’s relationship with nature, and particularly with biodiversity.
The 2020 edition of the State of the World’s Forests report, produced in partnership by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), helps map a strategy to do that. The report examines the contributions of forests, and of the people who use and manage them, to the conservation and the sustainable use of biodiversity.
Forests are home to most of the world’s terrestrial biodiversity — they provide us with a wide array of services, ranging from cleaner air and water to natural foods consumed by one billion people and cooking fuel for 2.4 billion people. Forests also provide more than 86 million green jobs .
Obtaining sustainable benefits from forests means paying more attention to their needs, which are actually our needs too. The degradation and loss of forests and biodiversity is a contributing factor to disrupting nature’s balance and increasing the risks of human epidemic diseases in general. While global deforestation slowed in the last decade, some 10 million hectares are still being lost each year, and alongside them, vital species.
