On 3 November, the Brazilian presidency of COP30 released a long-anticipated voluntary roadmap aimed at combating deforestation. The initiative emerged from Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s call during the Belém climate summit for a coordinated approach to halting and reversing forest loss. Although nearly 93 countries expressed support for including the roadmap in COP30’s formal negotiated outcome, consensus could not be achieved among all 196 parties required. As a result, the COP30 presidency announced it would develop the roadmap outside the official UN climate process, ultimately receiving input from 18 countries and four negotiating blocs, along with numerous civil society organizations and research institutions.
The roadmap represents the latest addition to a series of international forest protection pledges, following the 2014 New York Declaration on Forests and the 2021 Glasgow Leaders’ Declaration on Forests and Land Use. However, unlike these predecessors, the roadmap does not establish new commitments or reopen existing agreements. Instead, its stated purpose is to translate existing forest-related commitments into coordinated, country-led implementation strategies that account for varying national circumstances and priorities. The document was released less than a week before COP31 was scheduled to begin, with the presidency noting that Brazil’s own deforestation rate had fallen to its lowest level on record, declining more than 70% since 2022.
The roadmap organizes forest action into three interconnected components: national action, international action, and financial mechanisms. Within the national action framework, the document identifies 18 policies and implementation approaches that countries can employ to address deforestation and forest degradation. These range from establishing protected areas and recognizing Indigenous territorial rights to managing disease outbreaks and restricting permits for forest conversion activities. For each approach, the roadmap provides evidence of effectiveness and examples of current country implementations. The document also outlines enabling conditions necessary for national-level action, including improved land governance and environmental education, along with a proposed five-step process for countries to follow in their forest protection efforts.
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