Forest loss falls globally as Congo Basin decline accelerates

Worldwide permanent forest destruction declined in 2025, with seven million hectares lost, but the Congo Basin saw forest loss rise to 2.4 million hectares, nearly matching the Amazon, according to the Forest Declaration Assessment released on 14 October.¹²³⁴

Global decline, but not enough

According to the assessment, which was produced by research organisations and NGOs working together, permanent forest loss in 2025 was 15% lower than a year earlier. The seven million hectares destroyed was described as roughly equivalent to the area of the Republic of Ireland. The reduction was the largest recorded so far this decade, according to reporting on the assessment.²³⁴

Erin Matson, a study co-author and lead consultant at Climate Focus, said the result was "encouraging but so far it’s the exception, not a new trajectory". The assessment concluded that the world is still not on course to fulfil the pledge to end deforestation by 2030, agreed at United Nations climate talks in 2021.¹²³

Central African losses rise

The improvement at global level coincided with worsening conditions in Central Africa. Congo Basin rainforest loss reached 2.4 million hectares in 2025, close to the 2.5 million hectares recorded in the Amazon. Reporting on the assessment also said forest degradation in tropical Africa increased by 25%, while it declined by 34% worldwide.¹⁴

Sam Nguiffo, who established the Centre for Environment and Development, said economic priorities continued to shape how Central African forests were managed. He said: "The erosion of the forest, both in size and in number of species, reduces the space available for communities and fuels conflicts".¹⁴

Latin American reduction and future risks

Latin American forest loss fell by 33%, according to the assessment. Reporting linked the regional decline in part to Brazil’s deforestation action plan and stronger enforcement; separately, reporting said reduced agricultural and pasture expansion and federal enforcement supported the fall in commodity-driven deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon.¹⁴

The assessment warned that an exceptionally strong El Niño was intensifying. It said that, if projections for a historically strong 2026-27 event materialise, drought and fire risks would increase across tropical forest regions. Matson said it was unlikely that 2026 would bring reductions on the scale reported for 2025.¹²³