Destruction of the world's tropical forests eased in 2025 from a record high, a report showed on Wednesday, underscoring how decisive policy can help keep trees standing despite pressures from a warmer climate and expanding agricultural frontiers.
A new report from the World Resources Institute (WRI) showed that the planet lost 4.3 million hectares (10.6 million acres) of pristine tropical forest last year, a 36% drop compared to 2024, due largely to Brazil's efforts to curb deforestation as pledged by President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva when he took office in 2023.
"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, a co-director of Global Forest Watch.
Still, Goldman said, countries are deforesting 70% more than they should be to meet the global commitment signed by almost all countries in 2023 to halt and reverse forest loss by 2030.
"Achieving this goal in the coming years will not be easy," she said.
The study found that Agricultural expansion continued to be the biggest driver of forest loss around the world, driven by farm commodities in nations such as Brazil, Bolivia and Indonesia, and subsistence farming in places such as the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Long-running policy continued to limit the loss of primary forests in Malaysia and Indonesia, where palm oil plantations have historically pressured biomes.
But President Prabowo Subianto's push to expand a food estate programme, which aims to make the country self-sufficient in food production, contributed to an increase in deforestation in Indonesia last year.
Environmental groups have warned that the end of an industry-wide agreement to bar the purchase of soybeans from recently deforested farms in the Amazon rainforest this year will have a similar impact in Brazil in coming years.
Global forest loss including ecosystems beyond the tropics fell 14% last year. But evidence continued to mount of climate change increasing pressure on the world's trees.
The report showed that the trend is most visible in Canada, which had its second-worst fire season on record last year.
The amount of boreal forest that burned in the past three years there was about five times the average recorded over the previous 20 years.
In the tropics, where fire ignition is usually human, drier leaves continued to turn what were once small burns into massive fires.
Rod Taylor, WRI's Global Director for Forests, said that although forests continue to be powerful carbon sinks helping to slow climate change, fires and droughts on a warming planet are increasingly turning these ecosystems into sources of greenhouse gas emissions.
"We're on a kind of knife's edge," he added.
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Global investors managing more than $3 trillion in assets have urged governments to halt and reverse deforestation and ecosystem destruction by 2030, according to a joint statement released on Monday ahead of next month’s U.N. climate conference in Brazil.
The world is falling far behind a global goal to reverse deforestation by 2030, with losses being largely driven by agricultural expansion and forest fires, according to the 2025 Forest Declaration Assessment.
European forests are absorbing significantly less carbon dioxide than a decade ago, putting the European Union’s ambitious climate goals in jeopardy, scientists from the EU’s Joint Research Centre (JRC) warned on Wednesday.
A group of 11 European Union countries is pressuring the European Commission to delay and soften the bloc’s landmark deforestation law, warning that current requirements are too burdensome for farmers and foresters, according to a document seen by Reuters.
The World Urban Forum (WUF13) continues in Baku, Azerbaijan on 18 May, addressing the global housing crisis. The day’s agenda includes the official opening press conference, the WUF13 Urban Expo opening and a ministerial dialogue on the Nairobi Declaration to advance Africa's urban agenda.
United Nations World Urban Forum 13 continues in Baku, Azerbaijan on 19 May with sessions and roundtable discussions focused on strengthening dialogue and advancing cooperation in urban development. Organisers say there are nearly 3 billion people globally who face some form of housing inadequacy.
A 5.2 magnitude earthquake struck China’s Guangxi region early on Monday, killing two people and forcing more than 7,000 residents in Liuzhou to evacuate as rescue efforts continued.
Azerbaijan and Georgia have agreed to resume daily passenger train services on the Baku-Tbilisi-Baku route from 26 May, 2026, marking a major step in restoring regional rail connectivity after services were suspended in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Pakistan has deployed around 8,000 troops, fighter jets and air defence systems to Saudi Arabia under a mutual defence agreement, according to security officials and government sources familiar with the arrangement.
More than 100 people were killed in a violent storm that battered India's most populous state, Uttar Pradesh, with rain and hail, the state Disaster Management and Relief office said on Thursday.
Climate change has driven a record surge in wildfires across Africa, Asia and other regions this year, with scientists warning that conditions are likely to worsen further as the northern hemisphere enters summer and El Niño weather patterns intensify.
Kazakhstan has ratified a regional green energy agreement with Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan, signalling Central Asia’s ambition to become a key supplier of renewable energy to international markets.
China’s growing use of electric and hydrogen-powered vehicles took centre stage at the Beijing Auto Show 2026, which opened on 24 April, highlighting the country’s expanding clean transport ambitions.
Global weather forecasters predict a strong El Niño will develop in the second half of 2026, bringing hotter, drier conditions to much of Asia while increasing rainfall in parts of North and South America.
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