The UN Ministerial Conferences, the 1992 and 2002 UN summits and the 1997 UN General Assembly session have all shared the goal of achieving sustainable forest management to attain high priority public interest objectives such as mitigating the effects of climate change, protecting biodiversity, ensuring wood as a renewable raw material and energy source, improving the employment and livelihood opportunities of rural populations, protecting topsoil and agricultural land, protecting of drinking water sources, ensuring the physical and mental well-being of the country’s population, in other words, improving the quality of life. These tasks can be achieved through forest management because all forests have three inseparable basic functions: environmental, economic and social. This thesis was adopted on the basis of a Hungarian proposal at the 1972 World Forestry Congress in Buenos Aires and has since become one of the cornerstones of international forestry policy. The relative importance of the three functions in relation to each other varies, of course, from area to area, and their balanced implementation must be ensured in sustainable forest management.5 Despite the existence of international frameworks, challenges such as illegal logging, deforestation, and weak law enforcement persist. These issues are exacerbated by conflicting land-use policies and the absence of strong governance in many regions.6

According to the FAO report7 global forest area continues to decline, with an estimated loss of 420 million hectares since 1990. The rate of deforestation has slowed in recent years, but deforestation remains a major concern, particularly in tropical regions. In addition to forest loss, many forest ecosystems are being degraded due to unsustainable logging, fires, and land-use changes. This degradation reduces biodiversity, ecosystem services, and the resilience of forests to climate change. On the positive side, there has been significant growth in forest restoration and afforestation initiatives. Countries are committed to increasing forest cover, particularly in Asia, Europe, and North America, where forest areas have expanded in recent decades. The assessment found that while governments remain the primary owners of forests, there is a trend towards increasing community and private ownership. Community-based forest management is particularly significant in Latin America and Africa.

Beside the problems mentioned above, another issue that can be seen worldwide is a lack of governance and oversight, combined with poorly defined property rights and unclear legal standards, which further exacerbates the problem. Government agencies responsible for forestry regulation are often underfunded and lack the political will or capacity to enforce laws effectively. According to ‘Contreras-Hermosilla’s report’8 illegal activities in the forestry sector are pervasive across many countries, especially in developing regions. These include illegal logging, fraudulent documentation, corruption, and violation of land tenure rights. Key factors contributing to legal non-compliance are weak legal frameworks, lack of enforcement capacity, corruption, and conflicting interests among stakeholders (e.g., timber companies, local communities, and governments). Illegal activities often lead to the over-exploitation of forests, loss of biodiversity, degradation of ecosystems, and significant financial losses for governments due to uncollected taxes and royalties. Moreover, illegal forestry contributes to the global carbon emissions problem.9