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The contributions of the forest, trees outside forests, and agroforestry sector (FTA) are crucial for achieving the United Nation’s (UN) 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development fairly and inclusively. This paper reviews FTA sector contributions to the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the Agenda—both individually and collectively—in the specific context of the development and well-being of the more isolated Indigenous Peoples and local communities (IPLCs) that are part of the explicit “leave no one behind” commitment expressed in the Agenda. The discussion is divided into four parts. Part One lays out the paper’s objectives, scope, and background. Part Two discusses how the FTA sector, working with and through other sectors, contributes to achieving the interconnected SDGs. It provides evidence of the breadth and strength of the FTA sector’s contributions across the SDGs to sustainable development. Part Three focuses on the prerequisites for strengthening the ability of IPLCs to sustainably use their forests to meet their livelihood needs and support their own sustainable development goals and approaches. Part Four provides conclusions and implications for the way forward in the context of achieving UN Agenda 2030.

The late John Spears' international career coincided with the emergence of global forest governance. His contributions at the World Bank, the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) and at the World Commission on Forests and Sustainable Development (WCFSD) are characterized by an unfailing call to integrate objectives towards forests and trees into broader development goals and particularly to tap the power of forests and trees to contribute to poverty alleviation.<br/> This paper describes the evolution of global forest governance since the early 1970s, especially focusing on the period when Spears was highly influential in the global forest policy debate. It gives an emphasis to the efforts the international community has made in adopting a more comprehensive perspective toward the role of forests in sustainable development. Despite this, global forest governance has recently tended to focus more narrowly on climate change at the expense of attention to the problem of poverty. While climate change is a major priority in its own right, we argue that this limited perspective needs to be overcome to unlock the full potential of forests in sustainable development, aimed at combating poverty.