Around 1.2 billion poor people depend on forests for their livelihoods. Sixty million indigenous people are wholly dependent on forests for food, fodder, medicine and fuel.
The degradation of forests and deforestation deprives them of their livelihoods. It harms biodiversity, fuels conflict, and results in $15bn of annual revenue loss worldwide.
Deforestation further generates almost a fifth of carbon emissions. It is the third largest source of greenhouse gas emissions - larger than the entire global transport sector.
Forests are being lost at a rate of 13 million hectares a year because the environmental benefits they provide are not valued. The land occupied by forests is currently worth more when converted to agriculture. On 29 November 2012, the UK government published a discussion paper on a proposed new programme to tackle deforestation.
Much work has been done to recognise the issue, and to ensure that forests are protected. This has included programmes on forest governance and illegal logging - one of the significant drivers of deforestation.
Financial incentives are also starting to flow to developing countries to reward them for reducing emissions from deforestation and degradation. This approach is known as "REDD+".
Financial incentives are necessary, but not sufficient. Improvements in the way forests are governed are still needed, including ensuring that poor people who depend on forests are not deprived of their livelihoods. More work is also needed to change the demand for the commodities that drive deforestation (palm oil, beef, soy, biofuels).
Our approach
To address deforestation, we have focused on tackling illegal logging, improving forest governance and improving the livelihoods of forest-dependent people. We have made good progress in recent years through our Forest Governance and Trade Programme (£24 million from 2006 to 2011) which has now been succeeded by a newly implemented programme known as Forest, Governance, Markets and Climate. This supports bilateral Forest Law Enforcement Governance and Trade (FLEGT) partnerships with a range of countries.
An independent assessment of the global response to illegal logging over the past 10 years suggests that the impacts of efforts on FLEGT have been large, resulting in $6.5 billion tax revenue saved, and a decline inillegal logging of 350million cubic metres, representing about 17 million hectares of forest which would have been degraded or deforested. This is an area larger than England and Wales.
We also provide support to NGOs and research organisations, and support work on forestry in several of our country programmes - for example we have a large community forestry programme in Nepal. In addition to this, we are supporting a range of large, multilateral initiatives which include the Congo Basin Forest Fund, the World Bank's Forest Carbon Partnership Facility and the Forest Investment Programme.
A significant proportion of the UK's international climate finance (£2.9 billion for the period 2011-15) will be for forests. This will scale up and build on existing efforts, and support a new and expanded programme to tackle illegal logging and other drivers of deforestation. See the story of one Indonesian illegal logger turned forest ranger in the video pictured above.
This will also involve new programmes on improving the way knowledge on forests is understood and used internationally and on policies and measures that deliver REDD+.
The UK Government commissioned an independent review in July 2011 from PwC on how and where the UK could most effectively direct its international finance for forests. The Government will be assessing these opportunities over the coming months. For more information about the report, see the Department for Energy and Climate Change website.