In 2018, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) identified pathways to curtailing global emissions to 1.5Oc—all included planting forests and protecting existing forests to reduce and avoid further emissions. Catastrophic forest fires, made worse by climate change, sharply increased the urgency to adapt forest management practices. New research showed that biodiversity loss is even more severe than originally thought, with unprecedented levels of deforestation and land degradation.
 

PROFOR knowledge is showing how forests and the people who directly depend on them are being affected by climate change, biodiversity loss, and the erosion of ecosystem services. It also advances solutions based on an integrated landscape approach that can slow deforestation, restore degraded lands, improve food security, and create jobs. In 2018 alone, PROFOR knowledge products and guidance informed over 50 government policies and World Bank operations. Knowledge Beyond Forests provides examples of this work that was underway in 2018.