World lost more than 7 million hectares of forest in 2025 as losses in Africa grow
The Forest Declaration Assessment finds deforestation fell 15% from 2024, but the world remains about 70% off track to halt forest loss by 2030.
Symbolic image · Photo: T. R. Shankar Raman / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped and resized)
Just over 7 million hectares of forest were cleared or destroyed worldwide in 2025, about 15% less than in 2024, according to the Forest Declaration Assessment 2026, released on Oct. 13. The annual review is produced by a coalition of civil society groups and researchers whose authors include the consultancy Climate Focus. It tracks the pledge made by more than 140 countries at the 2021 Glasgow climate summit to end deforestation by 2030. The assessment says the world is about 70% off track, with losses since 2021 exceeding the required pathway by 10.7 million hectares.
Deforestation is a major driver of climate change because cleared forests stop absorbing carbon dioxide. The regional picture is shifting. Tropical Latin America lost about 2.5 million hectares, 33% below the 2018-2020 baseline, while losses in tropical Africa, home to the Congo Basin, rose to about 2.4 million hectares. Loss of humid tropical primary forest fell after the fire-driven year of 2024 but remained 11% above the baseline. Degradation of tropical moist forests dropped 34% to 3.5 million hectares, though it increased in Africa.
The authors cautioned against overstating progress. "These successes remain the exception rather than the norm," said Ivan Palmegiani of Climate Focus. His colleague Erin Matson said last year's progress should be seen as an "exception and not a new trajectory because the underlying problem has not gone away." In Brazil, Amazon deforestation alerts fell 36% between August 2025 and July 2026, according to Climate Policy Initiative. The report is not a peer-reviewed study but an assessment by civil society groups and researchers.