The UN notes that the world's forests are threatened by illegal logging, forest fires, pollution, pests, fragmentation and the effects of climate change, including severe hurricanes and other weather events.

It is estimated that 2 billion hectares of degraded land in the world can potentially be restored. Their restoration is crucial to achieving the UN goal of increasing the global forest area by 3% by 2030. The organization's experts believe that it will also help countries create new jobs, prevent soil erosion, protect watersheds, mitigate the effects of climate change and preserve the planet's biodiversity.

The UN provides other statistics on forests. For example, they cover about 31% of the land. More than 80% of the planet's biodiversity is concentrated there. For more than 1.6 billion people, forests are a source of food, livelihood, employment and income.

It is noted that on May 8, a session of the UN Forum on Forests started in New York. Official delegates of the countries, as well as representatives of civil society from around the world will discuss the state of the forest and issues of its protection.