Forestry & Agriculture | Land Conservation & Restoration
May 2022

Forest Declaration Assessment

The Forest Declaration Assessment is a comprehensive, civil society-led effort to assess collective progress toward global forest goals.

Forests received unprecedented attention at the 26th Conference of the Parties (COP26) in Glasgow in 2021, with over 140 countries pledging to halt and reverse deforestation by 2030 under the Glasgow Leaders’ Declaration on Forests and Land Use. This new forest pledge along with many other voluntary forest commitments – including those focusing on finance, supply chains, Indigenous peoples and local communities, tenure, and more – has prompted the Forest Declaration Assessment to expand its mandate. From 2022 on, the former New York Declaration of Forests (NYDF) Progress Assessment will apply its comprehensive tracking and assessment process to commitments beyond the NYDF.

The NYDF was originally launched at the Climate Summit held at UN Headquarters in New York in September 2014, and is currently endorsed by more than 200 entities including more than 50 governments, more than 60 of the world’s biggest companies, and more than 80 influential civil society and indigenous peoples’ organizations.

The NYDF launched without a built-in mechanism for monitoring and accountability, which is why the NYDF Progress Assessment was established – to provide annual follow-up and accountability to keep the NYDF from becoming another forgotten piece of paper. From 2016 to 2021, the NYDF Assessment published in-depth focus reports on the NYDF’s major themes.

Climate Focus leads the coordination of the collaborative network needed for monitoring annual progress toward achieving the 2030 forest goals.

Now, the NYDF Assessment has become the Forest Declaration Assessment. Climate Focus annually leads an independent network of civil society groups and research institutions – the Forest Declaration Assessment Partners– in the necessary collaboration required between a multitude of organizations in assessing collective progress towards 2030 forest goals.

The Forest Declaration Assessment partners work closely with the Forest Declaration Platform to enable accountability toward 2030 forest goals.

Track progress with us at forestdeclaration.org