Climate Focus: About 7 million hectares of forest destroyed in 2025, world off track for 2030 goal

A new report by the consultancy Climate Focus finds the world remains far from meeting the goal of stopping forest loss by 2030, despite a drop in deforestation in 2025.

According to the analysis, roughly 7,000,000 hectares of forest were destroyed in 2025 — a 15 percent decline compared with 2024 — but still well above the annual limit implied by the 2030 goal, which is set at 4.2 million hectares.

Regional patterns and hotspots

The biggest losses occurred in the tropical forests of Latin America, which saw about 2,500,000 hectares wiped out, and in the tropical regions of Africa, where roughly 2,400,000 hectares were lost.

While deforestation in Latin America fell by 33 percent year-on-year, the report finds no meaningful signs of improvement in the Congo Basin, where forest loss remains stubbornly high.

Climate Focus identifies agricultural expansion, logging and mining as the primary drivers of the losses. The report also warns that political shifts and weak protection measures could endanger the recent gains and undermine longer-term progress toward the 2030 target.

Photo: press material from the event