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Global deforestation dropped 15 per cent last year to seven million hectares. Still, a new report warns that worsening conditions in Central Africa and a severe El Niño event will likely reverse this progress.
The annual Forest Declaration Assessment, published by a coalition of research groups, noted that while the 2025 reduction offers encouragement, the world remains off track to fulfil the UN COP26 pledge to eliminate deforestation by 2030.
To meet that global target, nations must reduce forest loss by approximately one million hectares every year.
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Latin America drove much of last year’s improvement, achieving a 33-per cent decline in forest clearing due to Brazil’s renewed Amazon enforcement policies.
However, researchers warn that political shifts and upcoming elections across the Amazon basin jeopardise these gains.
Meanwhile, forest loss in Central Africa’s Congo basin surged to 2.4 million hectares—nearly matching the Amazon’s destruction rate—as logging, mining, and agriculture continue to displace indigenous communities and fuel local conflicts.
A record-breaking El Niño weather pattern poses an immediate threat to tropical forests worldwide by exacerbating droughts and triggering widespread wildfires.
With intense forest fires already burning across Indonesia, climate experts predict the 2026–2027 climate cycle will further increase fire risk, making a continued slowdown in global deforestation highly unlikely.
