Deforestation: seven million hectares lost in 2025, new assessment estimates
Global deforestation reached approximately seven million hectares in 2025, down 15% over the year, according to the Forest Declaration Assessment 2026 released on October 14. The coalition of researchers and civil society organizations nevertheless considers the world far from its 2030 goal.
The authors compare these losses with a reduction pathway that should have limited deforestation to 4.2 million hectares in 2025. Under their method, the annual decline is therefore insufficient to close the accumulated gap.
IPS and AFP interviewed contributors to the report. They emphasize the fragility of progress: public policy, enforcement and pressures from agriculture or extraction continue to affect forests.
The recent development is the publication of this assessment. Its figures concern 2025 and do not describe losses occurring within the past 72 hours.