Goal 15: Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss

Between 1990 and 2015, the world’s forest area diminished from 31.7 per cent of the world’s total land mass to 30.7 per cent. This loss was mainly due to the conversion of forests to other uses, such as agriculture and infrastructure development. Meanwhile, other areas returned to forests through planting, landscape restoration or natural expansion. As a result of these ongoing processes and efforts to slow deforestation, the global net loss in forest area declined from 7.3 million hectares per year in the 1990s to 3.3 million hectares per year during the period 2010-2015. Progress across regions is mixed: Latin America and the Caribbean, sub-Saharan Africa and South-Eastern Asia accounted for the largest losses in forest area, whereas Eastern Asia accounted for the largest gains.

In 2014, 15.2 per cent of the world’s terrestrial and freshwater environments were covered by protected areas, which are recognized, dedicated and managed to achieve the long-term conservation of nature. A fundamental measure of their efficacy is the extent to which they include places that contribute significantly to the maintenance of global biodiversity, such as key biodiversity areas (KBAs). Globally, the percentage of terrestrial, inland freshwater and mountain KBAs covered by protected areas has increased from 16.5 per cent to 19.3 per cent, 13.8 per cent to 16.6 per cent, and 18.1 per cent to 20.1 per cent, respectively, from 2000 to 2016. Safeguarding KBAs around the globe in all three ecosystems is critically important for maintaining genetic, species, and ecosystem diversity, and in turn the benefits they provide to people.

As of 2015, over 23,000 species of plants, fungi and animals were known to face a high probability of extinction. According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List Index, amphibians are declining most rapidly in Latin America and the Caribbean, primarily owing to the chytrid fungal disease, one of numerous wildlife diseases on the rise worldwide. The greatest increases in extinction risk for birds and mammals have occurred in South-Eastern Asia, mainly driven by the conversion of lowland forests. On average, the extinction risk for coral species is increasing most rapidly, while cycad species (an ancient group of cone-producing plants) are the most severely threatened species group assessed. However, the loss of species is not inevitable: extinction risks for vertebrate species have been reversed in five small island developing States (Cook Islands, Fiji, Mauritius, Seychelles and Tonga) as a result of conservation actions over the last several decades.

The list of species under international protection continues to grow. At the same time, conservation efforts are being thwarted by the poaching and trafficking of wildlife, crimes that are occurring worldwide. Since 1999, at least 7,000 species of animals and plants have been reported in illegal trade affecting 120 countries. Trafficking in wildlife affects all regions of the world, whether as a source, transit location or destination. Trafficking in birds is most common in Central and South America, mammals in Asia and Africa, reptiles in Europe and North America, and corals in Oceania.