Synergies, trade-offs and contextual conditions shaping impacts of the sustainable development goals on forests and people

The chapter summarises the main findings from the SDG chapters (1–17) combined with the results from a workshop in 2018 to answer the following questions: How is Agenda 2030 likely to interact with forests and people? What are the possible synergies, trade-offs between goals and targets? What are the contextual conditions that shape the interactions between SDGs and targets and subsequent impacts on forests and people? Two broad groups of SDGs emerge. One includes SDGs that primarily focus on institutional, governance and social conditions. Those contribute to an enabling environment for inclusive forest management and conservation with associated livelihood benefits. A second group of SDGs affect land use directly and thus are expected to impact forests. Progress in the first group of SDGs results in synergistic interactions and positive outcomes for forests and peoples. Among the second group of SDGs, the potential for trade-offs is high, with important repercussions for forest and people. Understanding the potential for these trade-offs is essential in order to avoid implementation pathways that favour a small subset of these SDGs at the expense of the others.