Every year, seven million hectares of natural forests are converted to other uses, the Under-Secretary-General of the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs warned on Monday.
Li Junhua, who spoke at the United Nations Forum on Forests, emphasized that “The expansion of commercial agriculture is responsible for most of the deforestation.”
According to this department, zoonotic diseases account for 75% of all emerging infectious diseases and usually occur when natural landscapes, such as forests, are deforested, the news portal UN News reported.
The agency estimates that 2 billion hectares of degraded land worldwide have the potential to be restored. That’s why, Revitalizing degraded forests is key to achieving the UN goal of increasing global forest area by 3% by 2030.
Meeting this goal would also help countries create new jobs, prevent soil erosion, protect watersheds, mitigate climate change, and safeguard biodiversity.
The Economic and Social Council of the United Nations (Ecosoc) celebrates from this Monday the 18th session of the Forum on Forests. The priorities of the event are to increase the area of protected forests around the world and to reinforce their sustainable use. Forests occupy 31% of the planet’s surface and are home to 80% of terrestrial biodiversity. Furthermore, more than 1.6 billion people depend on them for their livelihood and income.
The president of Ecosoc and ambassador of Bulgaria, Lachezara Stoeva, also highlighted at the opening of the Forum that “caring for forests generates benefits in various areas”, from reducing poverty to quality education, from promoting decent work to Gender equality.
According to Stoeva, the preservation of forests contributes to the goals of combating climate change, especially in carbon sequestration, mitigation and adaptation. These ecosystems reduce floods, landslides, avalanches, sandstorms, and other natural disasters.
Stoeva also underlined that the High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development will take place this year, first at Ecosoc, in July, and then at the UN General Assembly, in September.
For the Ecosoc leader, the deliberations of the Forum on Forests can contribute to the advancement of many of the Sustainable Development Goals, which must be achieved by 2030.
Source: Observadora
