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The 12th International Day of Forests underscores the pivotal role of forest ecosystems in climate change mitigation and achieving Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 12, 13 and 15. Discover how SEI’s research, tools and initiatives are driving this mission forward.
Deforestation’s impact is staggering, ranking it as the third-largest emitter globally if it were a country. From 1990 to 2020, the world saw a loss of 420 million hectares of forests, with a further 4 million hectares disappearing in 2022 alone—equivalent to 11 football fields per minute. The FAO’s 2022 State of the World’s Forests report highlights the economic undervaluation of forests, despite their crucial ecosystem services and potential for nature-based solutions that support global economic recovery, nature preservation, and growth.
The International Day of Forests, established by the United Nations General Assembly in 2012, is celebrated on 21 March to promote the significance of all forest types. This year’s theme, “Forests and Innovation: New Solutions for a Better World,” showcases the vital role of technology and innovation in forest conservation, combating deforestation, habitat degradation and climate change.
SEI is dedicated to fulfilling SDGs 12 (sustainable consumption and production), 13 (urgent climate change action), and 15 (sustainable terrestrial ecosystems management). In observance of the International Day of Forests, SEI highlights its latest initiatives to protect and enhance forest ecosystems:
1. Enhancing financial institutions’ understanding of deforestation links. SEI, in partnership with Global Canopy and Zoological Society of London, launched the Forest IQ platform. This initiative improves financial institutions’ insight into deforestation, leveraging expert data analysis to tackle deforestation effectively.
Feature / Forest IQ will facilitate for financial institutions to play their vital part in a rapid market-wide transition away from deforestation.
2. Driving transparency for international trade associated with tropical deforestation. Collaborating with Global Canopy, SEI’s Trase initiative enhances transparency in the global trade of deforestation-linked commodities. Trase, covering over 70% of this trade, stands as the most comprehensive database for linking deforestation hotspots with global commodity markets.
Tool / Trase permite a los gobiernos, empresas y otros abordar los impactos ambientales de las cadenas de suministro.
3. Interacting with data on the global environmental impacts of consumption and production. The Commodity Footprints tool, created by SEI York’s Sustainable Consumption and Production (SCP) group, offers an interactive platform to assess the environmental impacts, including deforestation, of over 160 agricultural commodities across approximately 200 countries. This tool is a culmination of a multi-year collaboration with Defra and the Joint Nature Conservation Committee.
Tool / This new public dashboard can be used to visualize and interact with data on the global environmental impacts of consumption.
4. Recommending actions for the implementation of deforestation-free supply chains. SEI researchers contributed to reports for the German Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development and Belgium’s Federal Public Service for Heath, Food Chain Safety and Environment, assessing contributions to deforestation through agricultural commodity trade. These studies aid the formulation of strategies for deforestation-free supply chains.
Other publication / The German economy is linked to significant amounts of deforestation risk, but the majority of this risk results from just five key commodities.
Other publication / SEI research and tools have contributed to this Trase report for the Belgian government.
5. Provided evidence to guide the UK Government’s efforts to tackle deforestation. SEI’s input to the House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee report has shaped the UK Government’s deforestation strategies. Utilizing SEI’s Global Environmental Impacts of Consumption (GEIC) Indicator, this guidance reflects the UK’s role in global deforestation through its agricultural commodity consumption.
Feature / A UK Parliament Committee has carried out a review of how the country contributes to global deforestation, highlighting research performed by Trase and SEI.
Journal article / In this article, the authors assessed the impact of the 2015–2016 El Niño on South American tropical forests.
Journal article / Investigating individual components of carbon flows within ecosystems aids our understanding of carbon dioxide sinks and sources.
Journal article / New legislation may present challenges for suppliers: Brazil's coffee sector faces few barriers to compliance, but other sectors may face significant hurdles.
Other publication / Read about the opportunities and challenges related to the strengthening of carbon sinks in municipalities across the Nordic countries.
Journal article / In this study, the authors investigated how evaporation and transpiration vary within 3 Brazilian biomes for natural and managed land uses and land covers.
Journal article / New mapping techniques indicate that deforestation related to rubber production is at least two to three times higher than previous estimates have suggested.
Journal article / The study draws on over 70 in-depth interviews in two states of Brazil to understand what has motivated people not to join deforestation activities.
Feature / Trase data brings unprecedented transparency to the supply chains and impacts of Brazilian cattle and beef production.
Perspective / Research from SEI and ACTO shows how a new declaration can be strengthened to protect this tropical rainforest, in South America and beyond.
Perspective / Countries should collaborate on requiring importers to include action on deforestation at the heart of their sourcing practice, write Trase representatives.
Feature / Trase quantifies the emissions caused by deforestation and peatland degradation linked to countries’ production and consumption of key commodities.
Perspective / Trase, in partnership with Defra, the GCRF Trade Hub and SEI York, is releasing the Global Environment Impacts indicator.
Past event / This year's Africa Environment and Wangari Maathai Day is themed; ‘Circularity as a Solution to tackling Climate Change, Biodiversity Loss and Pollution.
Past event / This workshop is organised to get stakeholders’ feedback on the functionality of the web-based forestry and climate change decision-support tool.
Project / The LANDMARC project will enhance understanding of the potential of land-based negative emission solutions in agriculture, forestry and other land use sectors.
Tool / Trase enables governments, companies and others to address the environmental impacts of supply chains.
Project / This project applies transitions theory and leverage points research to the problem of persistent forest loss in the tropics.
Project / Novel methods to map the social and cultural value of trees to inform policy decisions regarding urban treescapes.
The critical environment governance group is a critical space that operates in established and emerging fields of study.
The sustainable consumption and production group at SEI aims to link the impacts of production to provide useful contextualized data and info to stakeholders
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