Global deforestation declined by 15% in 2025 to seven million hectares, but the world remains off track to meet its goal of halting deforestation by 2030, according to the Forest Declaration Assessment 2026.
The world has accumulated a deforestation reduction shortfall of 10.7 million hectares since 2021, while 65.4 million hectares of forest were downgraded to a lower ecological integrity category in 2024.
Tropical Latin America and the Caribbean reduced deforestation to 33% below the 2018–2020 baseline, while forest loss continued to rise in tropical Africa.
Forest protection and restoration received just $6 billion, or 0.3% of global climate finance, in 2024, while only 29% of assessed major companies had comprehensive zero-deforestation commitments.
Protected areas cover just 17.33% of the world's land and inland waters, requiring substantial expansion to meet the 2030 target of conserving 30%.
Global deforestation fell by 15 per cent in 2025, the sharpest annual decline since the 2018-2020 baseline, but the world remains far from meeting its goal of halting deforestation by 2030, according to a new assessment.
The Forest Declaration Assessment 2026, Tracking Progress on 2030 Forest Goals, found that seven million hectares of forest were lost in 2025, compared with annual losses exceeding eight million hectares since 2021. Despite the decline, the world has accumulated a deforestation reduction shortfall of 10.7 million hectares since 2021, compared with the reductions needed to meet the 2030 target.
The independent assessment, published by Climate Focus and a coalition of research partners, tracks progress towards halting and reversing deforestation and forest degradation by 2030. It examines forest loss, degradation, ecological integrity and restoration. The findings suggest that recent improvements have not been sufficient to reverse years of forest loss, while progress remains uneven across regions.
“Forests are being lost, degraded, and restored at uneven rates across the globe. Global deforestation fell 15 percent from 2024 to 2025, the sharpest year-over-year drop since the 2018-20 baseline,” it noted. “Yet, this bit of positive news comes after five years in which deforestation hardly budged.”
Tropical Africa's deforestation continues to rise
Tropical Latin America and the Caribbean recorded a decline in deforestation, with losses falling to 33 per cent below the 2018-2020 baseline. However, the report warned that the Amazon rainforest is approaching a warming threshold that could trigger large-scale ecological changes.
In contrast, deforestation continued to rise in tropical Africa, reaching a level comparable to tropical Latin America and the Caribbean for the first time.
Deforestation in tropical Asia remained broadly unchanged, with the underlying drivers of forest loss largely unresolved. Forest degradation in tropical moist forests declined to 3.5 million hectares in 2025.
However, the report found that damage to the ecological integrity of forests remained widespread. In 2024 alone, 65.4 million hectares of forest were downgraded to a lower ecological integrity category.
Unlike deforestation, which involves the conversion of forests to other land uses, loss of ecological integrity reflects deterioration in forest condition and ecological functioning.
“Tropical Latin America and the Caribbean and Tropical Africa recorded the sharpest increases, pushing Tropical Africa well off track against its 2030 pathway. Most temperate regions remain broadly on track, but Boreal North America does not,” it said.
Forest restoration remains far below global target
The assessment found that approximately 11.8 million hectares of land were under active forest restoration, representing nearly 6 per cent of estimated global reforestation potential. The figure highlights the scale of the challenge facing countries seeking to meet the global target of restoring 30 per cent of degraded ecosystems by 2030.
Deforestation linked to agricultural commodities and other commercial activities also remained high.
Commodity-driven deforestation declined to 6.01 million hectares in 2025, compared with a baseline of 7.24 million hectares during 2018-2020.
However, the report warned that the current rate remained far above the pathway needed to eliminate commodity-driven deforestation by 2030.
“Increasing demand for forest-risk commodities — like beef and soy, as well as critical minerals and other mined materials — will only place further strain on the world's forests,” it stated.
The report also found that conversion of grasslands and other non-forest ecosystems was occurring at an estimated rate of nine million to 13 million hectares annually, exceeding the area affected by deforestation.
Companies fall short on deforestation commitments
The assessment raised concerns about the private sector's progress in eliminating deforestation from supply chains.
Only 29 per cent of companies assessed under the Forest 500 initiative had comprehensive zero-deforestation commitments covering all the commodities they handled.
The report also found that 14 major companies had weakened or withdrawn existing commitments in 2025.
However, there was progress in the adoption of Science Based Targets initiative standards for Forest, Land and Agriculture (SBTi FLAG). The number of companies adopting these targets doubled in 2025, reaching 461 by June 2026.
The findings point to a gap between corporate commitments and the measures needed to eliminate deforestation from global supply chains.
Forests receive just 0.3 per cent of global climate finance
The report found that forest protection and restoration remained severely underfunded. In 2024, the forestry sector received approximately $6 billion in climate finance, equivalent to just 0.3 per cent of the estimated $2 trillion in global climate finance that year. Public funding accounted for most of the support.
Governments and other public funders provided $5.26 billion in forestry-related climate finance, compared with $750 million from private sources. Public contributions were therefore around seven times higher than private funding. At the same time, governments continued to provide substantial financial support to activities that could harm forests and other ecosystems.
The report estimated that governments spent an average of $410 billion annually on potentially harmful agricultural subsidies between 2022 and 2024. Fossil fuel subsidies amounted to a further $921 billion in 2024.
Indigenous communities lack legal recognition of land rights
The assessment highlighted the role of Indigenous Peoples and local communities in forest conservation, alongside continuing gaps in legal recognition of their land rights.
According to the report, Indigenous Peoples and local communities hold customary rights over approximately 5.5 billion hectares of land worldwide. However, only one billion hectares have clear legal recognition. The Intergovernmental Land Tenure Commitment aims to recognise or strengthen rights over 160 million hectares.
The report also examined how countries included Indigenous Peoples and local communities in their national climate plans. A 2026 review of 84 submissions under the latest round of nationally determined contributions (NDC), which outline countries' commitments under the Paris Agreement, found that more than 70 per cent mentioned underrepresented groups, including Indigenous Peoples and local communities.
This represented 61 of the 84 submissions, compared with 46 in the previous submission round.
However, the report found that most references were descriptive and did not explain how these groups had participated in preparing the plans or how they would be involved in implementing them. Few submissions addressed free, prior and informed consent, land rights or equitable benefit-sharing.
A separate 2025 analysis by the Rights and Resources Initiative of 25 national climate plans across Latin America, Africa and Asia reached similar conclusions. It found that most commitments lacked concrete mechanisms for recognising territorial rights, enabling community participation or providing direct access to climate finance, “despite the demonstrated role of IP- and LC-managed territories in storing carbon and reducing deforestation”.
Protected areas must expand to meet 2030 target
The report also found that progress towards the global target of conserving 30 per cent of land and sea areas by 2030 remained insufficient. Protected areas currently cover 17.33 per cent of the world's land and inland waters.
Reaching the terrestrial component of the 30-by-30 target would therefore require a substantial expansion in protected area coverage over the next four years. The target forms part of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, adopted in 2022.
Beyond environmental and financial challenges, the report raised concerns about restrictions on civic freedoms and their implications for forest governance.
It cited the CIVICUS 2026 State of Civil Society Report, which drew on interviews across roughly 100 countries and found continued deterioration in civic space. According to that assessment, civic freedoms were classified as obstructed, repressed or closed for most of the world's population. The Forest Declaration Assessment linked these trends to wider concerns about democratic institutions, civil liberties and the rule of law.