Protecting and Restoring Asia and the Pacific Forests for Climate and Biodiversity

The forests of the 46-economy Asia and Pacific region span 6 million square kilometers (sq km), accounting for 4.6% of the global landmass, including 2.1 million sq km of primary forest—original forests largely undisturbed by human activity—as of 2000. The region’s forests stored approximately 62.2 billion tons of carbon in aboveground biomass, representing 21% of the global total. They are also home to 38% of the world’s endemic birds, 26% of endemic mammals, 25% of endemic amphibians, and 23% of endemic reptiles.

From 2000 to 2020, Asia and the Pacific lost 682,000 sq km of forest—equivalent to 11.4% of its total forest area and 16.6% of global forest loss during that period. Concurrently, 199,000 sq km (3.3%) of forest area regrew, representing 15.2% of global forest gain. However, much of this regrowth consisted of secondary natural forests, plantations, agroforests, and swidden agricultural areas, which which are generally poorer in ecological quality and biodiversity than primary forests.

Deforestation

More than half (51%) of forest loss in Asia and the Pacific was caused by commodity-driven deforestation, including land clearing for palm oil, short-rotation wood fiber, rubber, mining, and energy infrastructure. About one-third (35%) resulted from forestry activities, specifically timber harvesting of natural or plantation forests. Shifting agriculture, where forest is cleared for agriculture and later allowed to fallow with forest regrowth, accounted for 12% of forest loss.

The clearing and burning of forests in the region emitted an estimated 42.2 billion tons of carbon dioxide (CO₂) from 2001 to 2020, accounting for 24% of the global emissions from forest loss over that period. At the same time, forest regrowth across the region removed an estimated 47.2 billion tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere—equivalent to 16% of the global CO₂ removals from forest regrowth.

Deforestation also drives biodiversity loss. Indonesia has the highest number of endangered or critically endangered bird and mammal species, India has the most endangered or critically endangered amphibians, and Sri Lanka has the most endangered or critically endangered reptiles.

Further, deforestation undermines human health, safety, and climate resilience. Forests offer natural protection against deadly storms, floods, and mudslides, and provide a local cooling effect, which is increasingly valuable as global temperatures rise. On the other hand, fires used to clear forests can severely degrade air quality for communities living downwind.

There are numerous examples of effective interventions for forest conservation that have been implemented around the world. These approaches can be grouped into five categories, each suited to different levels of remoteness (Figure 1).

• Passive protection can conserve dense, intact, sparsely populated forests. Their remoteness and inaccessibility have limited most economic activities and denser settlement, preventing the deforestation seen elsewhere.

• Protecting sufficient forest value targets heavily forested areas that are inhabited. This can be achieved by protecting the rights of Indigenous forest-dependent communities, establishing community forestry arrangements, promoting eco-tourism in national parks or other protected areas, creating multiple-use extractive reserves, and supporting sustainable logging.

• Raising forest value involves increasing the economic or social benefits of forests, such as through payments for ecosystem services, to conserve forests at the agricultural frontier that are at risk of undergoing clearing and conversion to croplands or pasture.

• Restricting exploitation and conversion includes enforcing forest laws, implementing moratoria on logging and land conversion, and establishing protected area networks. These regulatory measures can be applied across a wide range of geographic settings.

• Shifting commodity sourcing to reduce deforestation can conserve forest in areas dominated by large-scale agriculture. This can be done by sourcing commodities from farms that do not clear forests, through commodity certification, price incentives, preferential access to agricultural credit, and supply chain commitments from companies and governments to avoid purchasing products grown on recently deforested land.

Figure 1. Effective Interventions for Forest Conservation, by Remoteness

Source: J. Busch. 2025. Forests in Asia and the Pacific: Climate and Biodiversity. Asian Development Bank.

These interventions have often been used together to effectively reduce deforestation. For example, in Brazil, a multipronged effort led to an 80% decrease in deforestation between 2004 to 2012 and in Indonesia, a combination of public policies and private actions has been credited with a 40%–90% drop in deforestation since 2015.

A robust constellation of finance mechanisms exists to support forest conservation measures. REDD+ ( Reduce Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation in Developing Countries) initiatives have evolved along four tracks: (1) intergovernmental carbon markets, (2) payments for performance, (3) private voluntary carbon markets, and (4) emerging initiatives. Other public finance mechanisms include protected area funding, debt-for-nature swaps, bilateral aid, payments for ecosystem services (PES), and ecological fiscal transfers (EFT). Private finance mechanisms include sustainable forestry, forest-compatible bioeconomy ventures, sustainability certification, and reform of subsidies and credit.

While countries implement many forest policies domestically, there are compelling reasons to participate in multilateral forums to advance forest conservation. Global frameworks include the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD)’s Global Biodiversity Framework, the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), and initiatives by multilateral development banks. The latter includes the Model Forest Act Initiative, a global partnership comprised of various development institutions that aims to serve as a blueprint for designing a modern legal framework for the sustainable management and use of forests.

Across the Asia and Pacific region, forests are being lost far more rapidly than they are regrowing. However, large-scale success in reversing deforestation is achievable, bringing multiple benefits for climate mitigation, resilience and biodiversity conservation.

Asian Development Bank (ADB). 2025. Asia-Pacific Climate Report 2025: Unlocking Nature for Development. Asian Development Bank.

J. Busch. 2025a. Climate Mitigation Potential of Forests in Asia and the Pacific. Background paper for the Asia-Pacific Climate Report 2025: Unlocking Nature for Development. Asian Development Bank.

____. 2025b. Forests in Asia and the Pacific: Climate and Biodiversity. Background paper for the Asia-Pacific Climate Report 2025: Unlocking Nature for Development. Asian Development Bank.