Tropical Forest Loss Drops 36% in 2025 to 4.3 Million Hectares

SAO PAULO — The destruction of the world's tropical forests declined sharply in 2025, dropping 36 percent from the previous year's record high to 4.3 million hectares of pristine forest, according to an annual report released Wednesday by Global Forest Watch.

The reduction stemmed primarily from enforcement efforts in Brazil, where President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva pledged to curb deforestation upon taking office in 2023. Officials there intensified monitoring and penalties, contributing to the global slowdown despite ongoing pressures from agricultural expansion and a warming climate.

"It's encouraging, when the problem feels massive, that there are real interventions that work out there and we can see it in the data," said Elizabeth Goldman, co-director of Global Forest Watch, a program of the World Resources Institute and the University of Maryland.

Agricultural activities remained the leading cause of tropical forest loss worldwide. Commercial farming for commodities drove clearances in Brazil, Bolivia and Indonesia, while subsistence agriculture fueled losses in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Policies in Malaysia and Indonesia helped limit primary forest decline amid...