Global Civil Society & the UN Sustainable Development Goals

Goal 15: Sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, halt and reverse land degradation, halt biodiversity loss

Life on Land


Goal 15 is about conserving life on land. It is to protect and restore terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and stop biodiversity loss.

Earth’s ecosystems are vital for sustaining human life, they contribute to over half of global GDP and encompass diverse cultural, spiritual, and economic values.

However, the world is facing a triple crisis of climate change, pollution and biodiversity loss.

Between 2015 and 2019, at least 100 million hectares of healthy and productive land were degraded every year, impacting the lives of 1.3 billion people.

Agricultural expansion is the direct driver of almost 90 per cent of deforestation. This is in direct relation to our food systems, and oil palm harvesting accounted for 7 per cent of global deforestation from 2000 to 2018.

Global and regional efforts to sustain forest ecosystems as well as their social, economic and environmental functions are essential, in particular for developing countries and the tropics.

We need to shift humanity’s relationship with nature to achieve Goal 15, and realise that nature is the root of our life of earth. The recently adopted Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework provides renewed impetus for Goal 15, outlining four outcome- oriented goals to be achieved by 2050 and 23 targets to be achieved by 2030.

Name Acronym Founded City HQ Country/Territory HQ Type I Type II

Red de Fondos Ambientales de Latinoamérica y el Caribe

RedLAC 1999 Santa Tecla El Salvador F y

Red de Instituciones Vinculadas a la Capacitación en Economia y Politicas Agricolas en América Latina y el Caribe

REDCAPA 1993 Rio de Janeiro Brazil F

Red del Atlantico Este de Reservas de Biósfera

REDBIOS 1999 Paris France F g

Red Iberoamericana de Ciclo de Vida

E

Red Iberoamericana de Comités MAB y Reservas de la Biósfera

IberoMAB 1993 Paris France F

Red Internacional de Escritores por la Tierra

TIER 2005 Tarragona Spain E v

Red Latinoamericana de Bosques Modelo

RLABM 2002 Turrialba Costa Rica F

Red Latinoamericana de Lombricultura

J

Red Latinoamericana de Servicios de Extensión Rural

RELASER 2010 Santiago Chile F

Red Latinoamericana para el Análisis de la Calidad Ambiental en América Latina

RACAL 1990 F

Red Latinoamericana y del Caribe para la Conservación de los Murciélagos

RELCOM 2007 D

Red Panda Network

RPN 2007 Eugene OR USA F

REFORME

1986 Ribera de Arriba Spain F

ReGeneration 2030

Mariehamn Finland F

Regeneration International

2015 Finland MN USA F

Regional Centre for Mapping of Resources for Development

RCMRD 1975 Nairobi Kenya E g

Regional Centre for Training and Water Studies of Arid and Semiarid Zones, Cairo

RCTWS 2002 Cairo Egypt G g

Regional Clean Sea Organization

RECSO 1972 Dubai United Arab Emirates D

Regional Conference on Migration

RCM 1996 San José Costa Rica E g

Regional Convention for the Management and Conservation of the Natural Forest Ecosystems and the Development of Forest Plantations

1993 T g

Regional Energy Resources Information Center

RERIC 1978 Pathum Thani Thailand E y

Regional Environmental Centre for Central and Eastern Europe

REC 1990 Szentendre Hungary E g

Regional Environmental Centre for Central Asia

CAREC 1998 Almaty Kazakhstan G

Regional Environmental Centre for the Caucasus

REC Caucasus 2000 Tbilisi Georgia E gy

Regional Marine Pollution Emergency Information and Training Centre - Wider Caribbean

REMPEITC-Carib 1994 Willemstad Curaçao E g

Regional Model Forest Network - Asia

RMFN-Asia 2010 F

Regional Network of Agricultural Policy Research Institutes

ReNAPRI 2012 Lusaka Zambia F j

Regional Network of Local Authorities for the Management of Human Settlements

CITYNET 1987 Seoul Korea Rep F y

Regional Organization for the Conservation of the Environment of the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden

PERSGA 1995 Jeddah Saudi Arabia E g

Regional Organization for the Protection of the Marine Environment

ROPME Safat Kuwait D g

Regional Programme of Action for the Protection of the Arctic Marine Environment from Land-based Activities

RPA 1998 Oslo Norway E g

Regional Schools and Colleges Permaculture Programme

ReSCOPE Programme 2006 Lusaka Zambia F

Regional Sericultural Training Centre for Asia-Pacific

Guangzhou China N

Regional Trust Fund for the Implementation of the Action Plan for the Caribbean Environment Programme

1981 Nairobi Kenya K fg

Regional Water Centre for Arid and Semi-Arid Regions of Latin America and the Caribbean

2003 La Serena Chile G g

Regions of Climate Action

R20 2010 Geneva Switzerland C

Regions4 Sustainable Development

Regions4 2002 Brussels Belgium F

Regnskogfondet

1989 Oslo Norway G f

Regulatory Assistance Project

RAP 1992 Montpelier VT USA G

Religions for Peace

RfP 1970 New York NY USA F

reNature Foundation

2018 Amsterdam Netherlands G f

Renew the Earth

RTE Albany NY USA G

Research Center for Interdisciplinary Environmental Cooperation

INENCO 1989 St Petersburg Russia N

Research Institute of Innovative Technology for the Earth

RITE 1990 Kyoto Japan G

Research Institute of Organic Agriculture

1973 Brussels Belgium F j

Réseau des Femmes Africaines pour la Gestion Communautaire des forêts

REFACOF 2009 Edéa Cameroon J

Réseau des Organisations de Solidarité Internationale Côte d'Ivoire

ROSI Côte d'Ivoire 2014 Abidjan Côte d'Ivoire G

Réseau pour la Qualité de l'Environnement en Afrique Sub-Saharienne

AFRICACLEAN 2002 Dakar Senegal G

Réseau Sahel Désertification

ReSaD 2010 Ouagadougou Burkina Faso F

Resilience Alliance

RA 1999 Wolfville NS Canada F y

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