Study finds global deforestation fell in 2025 as Congo Basin losses rose
Science & ClimateWell-covered
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The Facts
- The Forest Declaration Assessment recorded 7 million hectares of permanently destroyed forest in 2025.
- Global deforestation in 2025 was 15% lower than in 2024.
- The Forest Declaration Assessment was produced by a coalition of research groups and nongovernmental organizations.
- Forest loss in the Congo Basin increased in 2025.
- Lower forest loss in Latin America helped reduce the global deforestation total.
- The report says the world remains off track to end deforestation by 2030.
- The report warns that an exceptionally strong El Niño could make future forest loss harder to curb.
Context
What is the Forest Declaration Assessment?
It is an annual assessment compiled by a coalition of research groups, NGOs and other organizations to track forest-loss progress against global commitments. SCMP Franceinfo Berner Zeitung
Why is the 2030 benchmark important?
More than 100 countries pledged at the 2021 UN climate talks in Glasgow to halt the destruction of forests and other landscapes by 2030. RP Online Kurier RFI
What factors could affect forest loss next?
The assessment cited worsening conditions in Central Africa and an exceptionally strong El Niño, which can bring drought and fires. SCMP Straits Times RFI
Where Left and Right agree, and where they split
- Where Left and Right agree
- The global 15% decline is driven almost entirely by reduced loss in Latin America, which masks a worsening Congo Basin and leaves the world off track for its 2030 goal.
- Where Left and Right split
- The left and the right split on whether to fund Congo Basin protection or replicate Latin America's playbook.
- Why they won’t converge
- The divide is one of values: whether a global aggregate counting all forests equally is the right unit of moral accounting, or whether credit and blame belong only to the specific jurisdictions that acted or failed to act.
How left and right read it
A falling global number is not the same as protection where forests are still being cleared. The 15% drop rests largely on lower loss in Latin America, yet the Congo Basin lost more forest in 2025 — so averaging the two hides who is carrying the damage. The question is simple. Who is prepared to fund and enforce protection in the Congo Basin before that window closes?
Progress in forests shows up where particular countries actually change course, not where global targets get declared. The 15% decline came largely because Latin America lost less forest, so the credit belongs to decisions made on specific ground rather than to any worldwide pledge. Seven million hectares is still far too much. A 2030 goal the assessment itself calls off track matters less than copying whatever worked in Latin America.
The decline rested largely on lower loss in Latin America; the fight is over whether to replicate that or rescue the Congo Basin first.
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