A major shift has emerged in global forest trends, but new findings reveal deeper challenges beneath the surface. From funding gaps to rising regional pressures, the road to 2030 remains uncertain.
Global deforestation recorded its steepest annual decline in 2025, falling 15 per cent to seven million hectares, according to the Forest Declaration Assessment 2026. While the reduction marks the strongest year-on-year improvement since the 2018-2020 benchmark period, researchers warn that progress remains insufficient to achieve the international goal of halting and reversing forest loss by 2030.
The assessment found that annual forest losses have exceeded eight million hectares every year since 2021. Despite last year’s decline, the world has accumulated a deforestation reduction gap of 10.7 million hectares compared with the trajectory required to meet the decade-end target.
Produced by Climate Focus and research partners, the report evaluates global performance on commitments related to deforestation, forest degradation, ecological integrity and restoration. It concludes that recent gains have arrived only after several years of limited progress and are not yet enough to offset continuing pressures on forests.
Regional trends showed stark contrasts. Tropical Latin America and the Caribbean achieved significant reductions, with deforestation levels falling to 33 per cent below the 2018-2020 baseline. However, the assessment cautioned that the Amazon rainforest is nearing a warming threshold that could trigger major ecological disruption.
Meanwhile, forest loss continued to worsen across tropical Africa, reaching levels comparable to those in tropical Latin America and the Caribbean for the first time. In tropical Asia, deforestation remained largely unchanged, indicating that underlying causes of forest clearance have yet to be addressed effectively.
Forest degradation in tropical moist forests declined to 3.5 million hectares in 2025. Yet broader damage to forest health continued at a much larger scale.
Ecological decline, funding shortages and weak commitments persist
The report estimated that 65.4 million hectares of forests were downgraded to a lower ecological integrity category during 2024. Unlike outright deforestation, this measure captures deterioration in forest condition and ecosystem function even when tree cover remains.
Restoration efforts also remain well below levels needed to meet global goals. Around 11.8 million hectares were under active forest restoration, representing less than six per cent of estimated global reforestation potential.
At the same time, commodity-driven deforestation fell to 6.01 million hectares in 2025 from a 2018-2020 baseline of 7.24 million hectares, but remained far above the pace required to eliminate such losses by 2030.
Researchers warned that growing demand for forest-risk commodities, including beef and soy, as well as critical minerals and other mined materials, could place additional strain on forests. Conversion of grasslands and other natural ecosystems was estimated at between nine million and 13 million hectares annually, exceeding the area lost through deforestation.
Corporate action also lagged behind expectations. Only 29 per cent of companies assessed through the Forest 500 initiative had comprehensive zero-deforestation commitments covering all relevant commodities. The report further found that 14 major companies weakened or withdrew previous commitments during 2025.
Funding remained another major obstacle. Forest protection and restoration received about $6 billion in climate finance in 2024, equal to only 0.3 per cent of global climate finance.
Protected areas currently cover 17.33 per cent of the world’s land and inland waters, leaving countries with a substantial task if they are to meet the target of conserving 30 per cent by 2030.