Global deforestation has slowed but remains 'too high' (FAO FRA 2025). What measures are needed to close the 'narrowing window' for forest restoration?

FAO's Global Forest Resources Assessment 2025 reports that global deforestation fell from 17.6 million ha/year (1990–2000) to 10.9 million ha/year (2015–2025), but calls this rate "still too high" [1]. Net loss is only 4.12 Mha/year because new growth offsets clearing on paper [1]. Young plantations cannot replace the carbon and biodiversity of old forests, so the measures needed must cover both protection and the quality of restoration.

1. Protect standing forests first

• Avoid diversion: protecting an old forest is cheaper and faster than regrowing one. More than half of the world's forests are under management plans, but only about one-fifth are in legally protected areas [1].
• Tighten exemptions: the Forest (Conservation) Amendment Act, 2023 exempts linear and strategic projects near borders and some security projects [5]. These need cumulative-impact review and strict compensation.

2. Measure what matters

• Separate natural forest from plantations and orchards in forest surveys. In ISFR 2023, tree cover rose by 1,289 sq km while forest cover rose by only 156 sq km [2], which masks the state of natural forests.
• Track canopy density and gross loss, not only the net headline area.

3. Restore quality, not numbers

• Fix compensatory afforestation: CAG found that only 7% of the non-forest land due was actually afforested in 2006–12, and that only 61% of released funds were used [3].
• Native species and survival audits: plantation survival in Uttarakhand was below the mandated level [4]. CAMPA should pay for saplings that survive, not for saplings planted.

4. Communities and finance

• Co-management: give rights and benefit-sharing to forest-dwelling communities, as in the mangrove co-management committees supported by UNDP–GCF [6].
• Climate finance: link restoration to carbon markets and to REDD+ results-based payments.

5. Ecosystem-specific restoration

• Mangroves as bio-shields: scale up MISHTI (Union Budget 2023–24) to protect coastal livelihoods and capture carbon [6].

To close the window, policy must move from counting trees to protecting intact, biodiverse forests through stronger laws, honest measurement, audited restoration and community stewardship. Done well, this advances SDG 15 (Life on Land), India's NDC carbon-sink pledge, and the constitutional duty under Article 51A(g).