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Friday, March 21, 2025, is International Day of Forests, with a focus on the crucial link between forests and food security, as over five billion people worldwide depend on forests and non-timber forest products for food, medicine and livelihoods, according to the FAO.
Forests are essential to life on Earth, providing clean air, regulating water cycles and supporting biodiversity. From wild fruits, nuts and medicinal plants to soil fertility and pollination, forests are fundamental to global food systems. At the same time, reducing deforestation and managing forests sustainably are key to mitigating climate change and ensuring long-term food security.
Forests play a critical role in climate action, as emphasised in the Paris Agreement and global stocktake. The REDD+ framework helps developing countries reduce deforestation and forest degradation while promoting sustainable management of forests.
Since the Warsaw Framework for REDD+ was adopted in 2013, REDD+ has protected approximately 1.7 billion hectares of forest – over 90% of tropical forests and more than 75% of forests in developing countries – helping communities maintain access to forest-based food sources while building resilience against climate threats to agriculture.
Enhancing transparency and technical expertise
Ensuring transparency and credibility in REDD+ implementation is vital to its success. A fundamental component of this process is the establishment of REDD+ reference levels, which serve as critical benchmarks for tracking forest conservation efforts.
From March 24, 2025, UN Climate Change will convene its 12th technical assessment of REDD+ reference levels, where experts from various countries will assess reference levels submitted by Burkina Faso, Costa Rica, Cuba, Guyana, Panama, Senegal and Sudan – some for the first time, others with updated reference levels. This process strengthens national reporting capacities, enabling countries to enhance their methodologies, integrate new data sources, and improve overall accuracy.
“For Ghana, we don’t see the forest reference level as just a requirement under REDD+. We see it as a process to build capacities, to bring expertise together. It is a process to make sure that whatever the challenges are, we are able to overcome them and get results for the country,” said Thomas Yaw Gyambrah, from Ghana’s Forestry Commission, during a side event at COP29.
Nur Masripatin, advisor to Indonesia’s Ministry of Environment and Forestry, emphasised how expert feedback has helped improve national REDD+ assessments: “The interaction provided our national experts with a better understanding of where our strengths lie, where our weaknesses are, and the areas we need to improve.”
Forest conservation in national climate plans
As nations work toward halting and reversing deforestation and forest degradation by 2030, it’s crucial to integrate sustainable management of forests into national climate plans (known as nationally determined contributions or NDCs). Some countries are already incorporating REDD+ activities into their NDCs, using them to meet emission reduction targets while protecting ecosystems and livelihoods.
Strengthening engagement in REDD+ can help countries access climate finance and enhance monitoring capabilities. As technological advancements improve forest data collection and international cooperation expands, ensuring forests are central to national climate strategies will be key to sustaining both people and the planet.
Protecting forests safeguards climate stability, biodiversity and future food security, ensuring communities can thrive for generations to come.
