The UN Food and Agriculture Organization has warned that the opportunity to reverse global forest loss and degradation is narrowing, calling restoration a strategic investment in food security, climate resilience and sustainable development.
FAO’s State of the World’s Forests 2026 report estimates that 489 million hectares of forest were lost through deforestation between 1990 and 2025, while more than 460 million hectares of forest are currently degraded.
The report says forests and trees support the food security and livelihoods of nearly one third of the global population, while also storing carbon, regulating rainfall, protecting biodiversity and reducing land degradation.
Threats are intensifying as fires affect about 127 million hectares of forest each year, alongside mounting damage from insects, diseases, severe weather and competition for agricultural land and natural resources.
Although governments and organisations have pledged to restore more than one billion hectares of degraded land, implementation remains far below the scale required. FAO argues that restoration must be locally designed and connect ecological recovery with rural incomes and productive agrifood systems.
The economic case is substantial: FAO says failing to restore degraded ecosystems costs an estimated $878 billion to $6.3 trillion annually, depending on how environmental and social losses are valued.
Director-General Qu Dongyu urged governments, communities, Indigenous Peoples, businesses and financial institutions to turn commitments into durable action, warning that delay will increase future costs and deepen risks to people and ecosystems.
References
- FAO: State of the World’s Forests 2026 launch, 28 September 2026
- FAO Forest and Landscape Restoration Mechanism: SOFO 2026 overview
- The Guardian: UN warns of narrowing window to restore forests, 29 September 2026