Sikeade Egbuwalo is the biodiversity lead at Nigeria’s Federal Ministry of Environment.

Here in Nigeria, we are suffering badly from forest loss and degradation. We are losing our unique wild animals and plants and suffering from encroaching deserts, failing rainy seasons, declining wetlands and diminishing food supplies. Our Indigenous communities are struggling to survive on the land where they have sustainably lived for millennia.

To tackle this and preserve our forests, we are advancing policies to secure effective protection of 30% of the West African ECOWAS region by 2030.

But unfortunately, despite global commitments, this ambition is not shared around the world. International attention has focused almost entirely on tropical deforestation, allowing the wealthiest countries of the Global North to avoid accountability for impacts in their own forests.

This deeply rooted double standard now jeopardises the implementation of the ambition to halt and reverse forest loss and degradation by 2030, which was enshrined in a declaration at COP26 in 2021 and at COP28 last year.

Biodiversity market takes off at COP16, in shadow of carbon credit chaos

Boreal and temperate forests in the Global North are among the most ecologically vital ecosystems in the world. In addition to their importance for biodiversity, they store a significant share of the planet’s forest carbon, making them critical for the climate.

Yet primary and old-growth forests are being clear-cut at alarming rates in the Global North, where forestry is driving some of the highest rates of tree cover loss in the world. Like tropical deforestation, the impacts of northern logging do not stop at countries’ borders – they are felt everywhere.

Despite the science, countries in the Global North continue to insist their practices are sustainable and are working to limit the forest discussion solely to deforestation and degradation of tropical forests in the Global South.

Just days following the 16^th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity in Cali, Colombia, last month, policymakers from several countries in Europe attempted to effectively exempt their industries from the European Union Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) through a “no risk” category for countries with increasing forest cover.

While EU member states have fortunately held firm against these amendments, this is not the only attempt by Global North countries to weaken the EUDR’s application within their own borders.

Obstructionism under the EUDR is also only part of a broader effort by Global North countries to permit themselves to continue business-as-usual forestry practices without transparency or accountability, while putting the burden for improvement and due diligence solely on the Global South.

Failure of Busan talks exposes fossil fuel barrier to UN plastics pact

Not only does this inequity undermine progress on natural climate solutions in the Global North, it also places an additional burden on the Global South, prevents us from addressing this problem as true partners, and stunts the development of cohesive global supply chain standards.

As we move toward the latter half of this critical decade and look toward next year’s COP30 climate talks in Belém, Brazil, we must commit to a shared global responsibility for forest protection. This should increase amb