Another View: Once our primary forests are gone, they’re gone forever

At the 2021 United Nations Climate Conference in Glasgow, 145 nations made a pledge to halt and reverse deforestation and land degradation by 2030. Almost three years later, the call for transformative action is ringing hollow.

Globally, 6.37 million hectares of forest were lost in 2023, and targets to reduce deforestation were missed in almost all tropical regions, according to the 2024 Forest Declaration Assessment. Even more forest – 62.6 million hectares – became degraded (meaning an...