With the adoption of the 2015–2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the United Nations (UN) Member States pledged to ensure that no one would be left behind. This article highlights the essentials (meaning, importance, history, framework, pillars, related key studies, and role of key actors) in respect of the ‘Leaving No One Behind’ (LNOB) pledge. The review shows that the LNOB pledge has three-pronged strategic development imperatives: (i) to end poverty in all its forms, (ii) to stop the discrimination and inequality that have resulted in unequal outcomes for the disadvantaged population, and (iii) to reach the furthest behind first. The framework for achieving the ambition is anchored on implementing the SDGs, ‘empowering the left-behind by ensuring their meaningful participation in decision-making; and enforcing equity-focused policies, and interventions with a dedicated budget to support rights-holders and duty-bearers to address the deprivations of the people left behind. The UN, Governments, Businesses, Civil Society Organisations and other actors should collaborate to translate the mantra into reality by addressing the pervasive societal issues of poverty, inequality, and discrimination. Germane to achieving the LNOB ambition are reliable disaggregated people-centered data, research, and stakeholder/actor commitment to the pledge.

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In consonance with the universal quest for sustainable development, the United Nations (UN) declared 17 global goals in 2015 known as the sustainable development goals (SDGs). Scholarly literature has highlighted the relevance of trees and forests (TFs) to this quest from various perspectives. However, the perspectives appear elitist, as they tend to exclude those of some seemingly ordinary but actually crucial actors whose activities directly affect the growth, health, and population of TFs, namely small-scale farmers, chainsaw operators, and artisanal miners operating particularly in rural areas in developing countries. The study examined the excluded perspectives of the said actors in selected rural comminutes in Ghana on the relevance of TFs to SD. The study was guided by the SDGs in its data collection, analysis, and reporting approach. Focus group discussions were held with the farmers and miners, while in-depth interviews were held with the chainsaw operators. The actors‘ perspectives generally indicated that TFs were relevant to seven, not relevant to six, and somehow relevant to four of the 17 SDGs. Although the actors saw TFs as important for SD, they (actors) were not favourably disposed to tree-planting for purposes of land restoration because they saw TFs as renewable resources with natural regenerative capacity. Stronger advocacy and more intensive sensitization by the central and local governments, forestry commission, and other pro-environmental organisations, institutions, and agencies on the importance of growing, nurturing, and conserving TFS for SD are recommended. Furthermore, the government should enforce regulations to stop the destruction of TFs by the actors to ensure a sustainable green environment for sustainable development.