Science Panels for the Amazon, Congo Basin, and Borneo Urge Action on Threats and Opportunities in World's Largest Tropical Forests
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Belém, Brazil (November 10, 2025) — The UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN), convener of the Science Panels for the Amazon (SPA), Congo Basin (SPCB), and Borneo (SPB), has launched the 2025 Amazon Assessment Report and previewed the key messages of the forthcoming Congo Basin and Borneo assessments. The reports warn that the world’s three largest tropical forest biomes face escalating and unprecedented pressures. Announced at COP30 in Belém, Brazil — the first UN Climate Conference ever held in the Amazon — the 2025 assessments underscore the urgent need for coordinated local, regional, and global action.
For the Congo Basin and Borneo, these are the first-ever comprehensive scientific assessments, synthesizing knowledge across disciplines and regions. For the Amazon, this is the second assessment report, with the first released at COP26. Across all three biomes, scientists warn that without immediate science-based action by governments, private sectors, and civil society, the planet risks losing irreplaceable ecosystems central to climate stability and human well-being. In total, hundreds of scientists contributed to the three assessments, identifying priority areas for locally led research and new opportunities to build sustainable, inclusive pathways for development.
“These reports provide critical scientific insights into the state of the Amazon, Congo Basin, and Borneo tropical ecosystems,” said Emma Torres, Vice President of the Americas & Strategic Partnerships for the SDSN. “Together, they send a clear message: the world’s tropical forests are home to biodiversity of global significance, and provide ecosystem services essential for their countries and for the global climate, economy, and well-being, but they are facing severe threats and risk approaching tipping points. By linking rigorous research with local realities, the Panels provide nature-based solutions to protect biodiversity, strengthen governance, and secure a sustainable future for the millions who depend on these forests.”
The Amazon, Congo Basin, and Borneo are home to over 180 million people, including many Indigenous Peoples, Afro-Descendant Peoples, and Local Communities, whose stewardship has protected and conserved these forests for centuries. These ecosystems are critical for livelihoods, providing food, water, energy, and employment to millions. Yet, both the forests and their communities face increasing pressures from extractive agriculture, mining, deforestation, wildfires, environmental degradation, organized crime, and the accelerating impacts of climate change.
In response to these mounting threats, the SDSN is working to amplify the voices of scientists through these regional panels. The SDSN calls for greater investment in science-based policymaking and deeper engagement of Indigenous and Local Knowledge systems in shaping and implementing sustainable, community-led solutions. Through the SPA, SPCB, and SPB, countries have an opportunity to invest in rigorous, region-specific, and actionable strategies that both protect biodiversity and promote sustainable development for their countries and local communities.
Taken together, the 2025 Assessment Reports warn that the world’s tropical forests, which are vital to climate stability, biodiversity, and human well-being, are approaching critical thresholds. Immediate, coordinated action across all three regions is essential to halt deforestation, restore degraded ecosystems, strengthen Indigenous and local rights, and implement science-based, region-specific solutions.
About SDSN
The UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) works under the auspices of the UN Secretary-General to mobilize universities, think tanks, and research centers to advance the Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Agreement. Established in 2012 by former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and economist Jeffrey Sachs, the SDSN promotes evidence-based solutions, policy analysis, education, and global cooperation at the intersection of science, policy, and practice.
Explore the SDSN’s COP30 Resource Hub for more information: https://www.unsdsn.org/resources/cop-resource-hub/
The Science Panel for the Amazon: 2025 Assessment Report
Launched at COP30, the SPA’s 2025 Assessment Report warns that the Amazon’s ecological, economic, and socio-cultural connectivity — the interlinked natural systems, peoples, and knowledge that sustain the region — is under severe threat. In 2021, the SPA released its first landmark Amazon Assessment Report at COP26, hailed as an “encyclopedia” of the Amazon for its unprecedented scientific scope, inclusion of Indigenous scientists, and transparent process, including peer review and public consultation.
The Amazon is home to more than 47 million people, including 2.2 million Indigenous People, and harbors around 13% of the world’s known species. Its forests and rivers sustain rainfall, biodiversity, cultural exchange, and livelihoods far beyond the basin.
Land grabbing, illegal gold mining and logging, and drug trafficking are destroying ecosystems, displacing communities, and fueling violence. Environmental degradation is triggering health crises and increasing pandemic risks. Combined with climate change and destructive land use, these pressures are pushing the Amazon toward a tipping point that could irreversibly disrupt rainfall patterns, biodiversity, carbon storage, and human well-being.
The 2025 Report explores the many dimensions of Amazonian connectivity, emphasizing that maintaining ecological and sociocultural connections is critical not only for safeguarding the Amazon but also for addressing the global climate crisis. While there are diverse pathways to achieve this goal, many powerful initiatives are already underway across the region. The report features a series of Calls to Action that highlight solutions currently under discussion or in implementation to address the most urgent challenges and sustain or restore Amazonian connectivity across different scales and timeframes.
Key recommendations from the report’s chapters and Calls to Action include halting deforestation, degradation, and wildfires, the dismantling of illegal economies, the expansion and protection of Indigenous Territories and Protected Areas, and the integration of science, technology, and Indigenous and Local Knowledge to advance nature-based solutions. The report calls for maintaining and conserving Amazon’s ecological and socio-cultural connectivity by creating enabling conditions that strengthen socio-bioeconomies, catalyze the transition to multifunctional production systems, and mobilize large-scale finance for the conservation and restoration of healthy standing forests and flowing rivers. Coordinated regional collaboration across borders, strong enforcement, and Indigenous and local leadership are also essential to safeguard connectivity, mitigate climate change, and maintain the Amazon as a connected system that supports life locally, regionally, and globally.
While the Amazon faces urgent challenges and risks reaching a critical tipping point, the 2025 Assessment Report highlights that science-based, Indigenous, local, and nature-based solutions can guide the region toward a sustainable future.
Read the 2025 Amazon Assessment Report.
About the SPA
The SPA, convened by the SDSN in 2020, is the first high-level scientific initiative dedicated to the Amazon. With over 300 experts, including Indigenous and local voices, the SPA delivers authoritative assessments and relevant policy recommendations to address deforestation, climate change, and biodiversity loss. Dr. Jeffrey Sachs, President of the SDSN, is the convener of the SPA; Ms. Emma Torres is the strategic coordinator; and Dr. Carlos Nobre and Dr. Marielos Peña-Claros are the co-chairs.
Learn more: https://www.sp-amazon.org/
Contacts
Leticia Dorfman Palma – Media Contact, SPA – lumine@lumine.net.br
Daniel Bernstein – Special Assistant & Program Associate, SPA / Climate & Energy Program – daniel.bernstein@unsdsn.org
Science Panel for the Congo Basin: 2025 Assessment Report
Spanning 3.46 million square kilometers, the Congo Basin is the “Green Heart” of Africa. Its forests, savannas, swamps, montane ecosystems, and the world’s largest tropical peatland regulate rainfall, water cycles, and climate far beyond the region. Home to more than 10,000 species of plants, 400 mammals, 1,000 birds, and 700 species of fish, the Basin is one of Earth’s richest reservoirs of biodiversity and serves as the largest tropical carbon sink. Its peatlands alone store roughly 30 billion tonnes of carbon, crucial for global climate stability.
For over 650,000 years, humans have managed and shaped these landscapes. However, human activity since colonization has brought industrial logging, mining, oil exploration, and urban expansion. Unsustainable practices, ongoing conflicts, and intensifying climate risks are pushing ecosystems and livelihoods in the Basin towards critical thresholds. Despite decades of progress in forest management and conservation, sustainable development remains precarious. Experts warn that the future resilience of the Congo Basin depends on stronger governance, fair and predictable financing, community-driven stewardship, adequate, long-term investments in science, as well as the global effort to reduce carbon emissions and fight climate change.
The 2025 Congo Basin Assessment Report, Congo Basin Resilience and Sustainability: From the Past to the Future, brings together leading scientists and regional experts to synthesize what is known and map a sustainable path forward. Across 39 chapters organized into four sections, the Report traces the Basin’s ecological and human history, documents major environmental changes, and champions innovative sustainable development solutions. The Report describes the Basin as Africa's continental "green engine," vital for supporting livelihoods, biodiversity, and climate, and proposes pathways to safeguard natural capital while enhancing sustainable development.
While the full report is currently in press and is expected to be launched in early 2026, a comprehensive 48-page Executive Summary was released at COP30, presenting 16 key messages drawn from the Report, which offers the first-ever comprehensive overview of the Basin’s geological, ecological, and socio-economic dynamics. It warns that continued exploitation will further erode one of the world’s most significant tropical ecosystems, undermining regional and even continental stability and global climate goals. At the same time, the SPCB emphasizes the Basin’s potential to drive Africa’s nature-based development strategies, highlighting opportunities for sustainable management and optimization of the use of existing resources. It makes a call to action for dependable finance and equitable investment in sustainable development for the Congo Basin nations, identifying urgent knowledge gaps and research priorities to guide future policy, investment, and conservation efforts.
Read the Executive Summary of the 2025 Congo Basin Assessment Report.
About the SPCB
Launched at COP28, the SPCB is the first independent scientific body dedicated to assessing the region's ecosystems, their condition, and the threats they face, to guide policy for sustainable development and conservation. The Panel brings together over 180 experts and is co-chaired by Bonaventure Sonké (University of Yaoundé, Cameroon), Lydie-Stella Koutika (Centre de Recherche sur la Durabilité et la Productivité des Plantations Industrielles, Republic of Congo), and Corneille Ewango (University of Kisangani, DRC).
Learn more: https://www.spcongobasin.org/
Contacts
Leticia Dorfman Palma – Media Contact – lumine@lumine.net.br
Tara Everton – Communications Manager, SDSN – tara.everton@unsdsn.org
Science Panel for Borneo: 2025 Assessment Report
Borneo, shared by Indonesia, Malaysia, and Brunei, is one of the world’s richest biodiversity hotspots and a critical carbon store. Over the past 50 years, more than 30% of its forests have been lost to oil palm expansion, mining, peatland drainage, and urbanization, pushing wildlife to the brink of extinction and increasing the risks of floods, fires, and landslides. Peat oxidation alone could release carbon equivalent to 15 years of global emissions by 2030, while rainfall could decline by up to 30% by mid-century, threatening agriculture, water security, and energy supply.
Economic pressures lie at the heart of this decline. Extractive industries such as oil palm, coal, and mineral mining dominate Borneo’s economy but often bypass local and Indigenous communities, deepening inequality, eroding land rights, and displacing traditional knowledge that has long underpinned climate resilience. Meanwhile, Borneo’s rare species are increasingly targeted by international trafficking networks, threatening biodiversity and undermining enforcement and governance.
The SPB’s 2025 Assessment Report, developed through contributions from seven thematic clusters — Geography and Geology; Flora; Fauna; Sustainable Agriculture; Social Well-Being and Cultural Diversity; Water and Minerals; and Economic Development — outlines a roadmap for urgent, coordinated action. It calls for the restoration of degraded ecosystems through connectivity corridors, peatland rewetting, forest rehabilitation, and collaborative conservation efforts led jointly by diverse stakeholders, including governments, businesses/industries, academia, communities, NGOs/CSOs, and indigenous peoples; a transition to sustainable economic models such as restorative and blue economies, geotourism, and green finance; as well as the application of AI, remote sensing, and geospatial mapping for precision agriculture, habitat connectivity, risk prevention, and improved resource management.
The Report emphasizes the need for stronger governance, with robust enforcement, transparent revenue-sharing, and legal protection for Indigenous rights. Investment in education and skills development, particularly for younger generations, and support for cultural heritage are also crucial for climate resilience. Above all, it calls for trinational collaboration under a unified Borneo Biodiversity Strategy to meet global climate and biodiversity targets before the window for action closes.
Read the Executive Summary of the 2025 Borneo Assessment Report.
About the SPB
Launched at COP29 in 2024, the SPB addresses challenges such as overexploitation of species, pollution, land and sea-use change, climate change, and invasive species. By advancing biodiversity protection in Southeast Asia’s forests and seas, the SPB seeks to deliver socio-economic benefits, foster fair bioeconomies, and enhance the well-being of marginalized communities. Dr. Jeffrey Sachs, President of SDSN, is the Convener of SPB; Dr. Wing Thye Woo (Vice President of SDSN for Asia) is the Strategic Coordinator of SPB; and Dr. Mazlin Bin Mokhtar (UN SDSN Asia Headquarters, Sunway University, Malaysia) and Dr. Jatna Supriatna (University of Indonesia) are the Co-Chairs of SPB.
Learn more: https://www.unsdsn.org/our-work/science-panel-for-borneo/
Contacts
Tara Everton – Communications Manager, SDSN – tara.everton@unsdsn.org