Nearly one-third of the land on Earth is forested, but because of agriculture and infrastructure development, nearly 27 soccer fields’ worth of forest are destroyed every minute.

Globally, forests are home to a significant majority of the world’s land biodiversity and absorb billions of tons of carbon dioxide every year. Over 1.5 billion people worldwide depend directly on forests for food, shelter, and their livelihoods. In Southeast Asia, countries from Cambodia to Indonesia to the Philippines have returned 8.8 million hectares of forested land to local management, so people who live in forests can lead the protection of their homes. The Mae Tha forest community in northern Thailand, for example, has been able to address droughts and illegal logging. And in Seattle, community members are creating the Beacon Food Forest, an urban permaculture project consisting of fruit and nut trees, berry shrubs, and other edible plants to provide food for the community and rehabilitate native habitats.

The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) calls on “forest sector decision-makers to re-imagine forests, not just as spaces for conservation, protection or production… but also as key to the world’s food systems and diets.”