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The paradox is staggering – just as we are beginning to understand the vital role of forests in sustaining life on Earth, they are disappearing before our eyes. Forests are hotbeds of biodiversity, harbouring over 70 per cent of all terrestrial animal species. We now know just how essential they are to water cycles and climate regulation. But this precious ecosystem – which supports 1.6 billion people – is under threat through massive deforestation, fires, and diseases caused by the proliferation of pests. 

Solutions exist to halt this decline. But they must be commensurate with the importance of forests to our common humanity, and combine contributions from science, culture and education.

The UNESCO study, World Heritage forests: Carbon sinks under pressure, published in 2022, outlines ways in which these ecosystems can be preserved. It puts forward measures for adapting to climate change and recommends establishing ecological corridors. In Indonesia, for example, the introduction of fire warning systems has considerably reduced the time taken by the authorities to intervene.  Another example is the Sangha Trinational World Heritage Site, located between Cameroon, the Central African Republic and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The creation of a buffer zone within the site is helping to preserve this important carbon sink. Forests within UNESCO biosphere reserves are also implementing initiatives to forge a new relationship with living organisms.

Another solution is to give indigenous populations greater rights in forest management. Numerous studies have shown that the rate of deforestation is much lower in the areas they manage.

It's not just the future of the planet that's at stake – it's the future of humanity itself. Forests have always had a profound influence on our collective memory and imagination. From the Epic of Gilgamesh to Dante's Divine Comedy, from the nymphs of classical literature to the tales of the Brothers Grimm and the sacred groves of Africa, in our yearning for the marvellous we project our fears and fantasies onto them. Indeed, the fate of the forests seems irrevocably linked to our own. In the words of Mahatma Gandhi, “What we are doing to the forests of the world is but a mirror reflection of what we are doing to ourselves and to one another”.

Agnès Bardon
Editor-in-Chief