Global deforestation fell 15% in 2025, but Congo Basin forest loss surged, study says

Mixed · 2Deforestation slowed worldwide in 2025, with 7 million hectares of forest, roughly the size of the Republic of Ireland, permanently destroyed, a 15% drop from the previous year, according to the annual Forest Declaration Assessment published on 14 October 2026. 1 2 Mixed · 2The report was drafted by a coalition of research groups and non-governmental organisations. It says the slowdown is not enough to meet the pledge, agreed at the UN's COP26 talks in 2021, to end deforestation by 2030, which would require a fall of around 1 million hectares per year. 1 2 Mixed · 2Erin Matson, the study's co-author and lead consultant at Climate Focus, called the 2025 figure "encouraging but so far it's the exception, not a new trajectory". 1 2

Mixed · 2Latin America, historically the world's deforestation hotspot, saw a 33% drop. The authors pointed particularly to Brazil's deforestation action plan and increased enforcement in its Amazon. 1 2 Mixed · 2The report says this progress "rests heavily on the choices of a small number of governments" and is vulnerable to elections in the Amazon basin. Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who has vowed to end illegal deforestation by 2030, faces Senator Flavio Bolsonaro in a run-off on 25 October. Deforestation surged under Bolsonaro's father, former president Jair Bolsonaro. Experts said progress could also be threatened in Colombia and Peru, where hard-right presidents were recently elected. 1 2 Mixed · 2In Africa the situation deteriorated: rainforest loss in the Congo Basin reached 2.4 million hectares, close to the Amazon's level of deforestation for the first time. 1 2

Right · 1Sam Nguiffo, a lawyer and founder of the Centre for Environment and Development in Cameroon, called the losses "a disaster" that would be "totally irreversible". He said logging, agriculture and mining appear to prevail in Central African forest management, and that deforestation harms the livelihoods and cultural identity of local and indigenous communities and fuels conflicts. 1 Centre · 1The Congo Basin is larger than India, spans 12 African nations, and is the world's second-biggest tropical forest area and its biggest tropical carbon sink. It is home to 10,000 plant species, four species of great apes, forest elephants and okapis. 2 Mixed · 2Clearing forests for agriculture or mining remains the leading driver of deforestation globally. 1 2

Mixed · 2The report also warns of El Niño, whose droughts create conditions for wildfires. The current event emerged in June, is expected to peak later in 2026 and is shaping up to be the strongest ever observed. Forests and plantations have been burning for months in Borneo and South Sumatra in Indonesia. 1 2 Mixed · 2Matson noted a "huge spike" in tree cover loss during the 2015-2016 "super" El Niño and said it was unlikely that 2026 would see the same reductions as 2025. 1 2