The world is growing increasingly volatile. Many issues are threatening forests and forest-based livelihoods, but it can be difficult to determine which are the most pressing. In an ongoing partnership with Johan Oldekop and his team at the University of Manchester Global Development Institute, FLARE convened a diverse panel of experts from academic, international organisations, donors, and the private sector at the 2025 Annual Meeting in Lima in October to identify 10 critical issues:
- Decline in traditional Global North aid and research funding
- AI and expanding internet connectivity
- Starkly increasing demand for gold and critical minerals
- Rising authoritarianism and shrinking civic space
- Expansion of carbon markets amidst credibility concerns
- Decline of the post-WWII global order
- Direct financing to Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities
- Trade and the EU deforestation regulation
- African Union agri-food strategy
- Uncertain fate of the Amazon rainforest under upcoming national elections
You can read more about these issues and how the Horizon Scanning group believe they will affect forests and livelihoods in the Open Access paper here.
You can also access the accompanying research brief here: Horizon Scanning Research Brief 2025