Forest destruction in the tropics eased by over a third in 2025, thanks in large part to Brazil’s stronger environmental protection which drove forest loss not caused by fires to a record low in the country, an annual survey showed. In 2025, the world lost 4.3 million hectares of tropical primary rainforest – an area roughly the size of Denmark, according to data from the University of Maryland hosted on Global Forest Watch. That is 36% lower than in 2024 when climate-fuelled fires pushed forest disappearance to a record high. Elizabeth Goldman, co-director of Global Forest Watch at the World Resources Institute (WRI), said the drop was ‘encouraging’ and proved what ‘decisive’ government action can achieve. But she cautioned that part of the decline reflected ‘a lull’ after an extreme fire year and forest destruction remains far too high to meet international goals to protect forests and limit global warming to acceptable levels. Deforestation was 70% higher than it needed to be in 2025 to meet a global pledge to halt and reverse deforestation by 2030, which 145 countries first committed to at COP26 nearly five years ago, the report said. Brazil, which holds the COP30 presidency, has promised to deliver a global roadmap guiding countries toward that goal before this year’s UN climate summit. ‘Achieving this goal in the coming years will not be easy as forests become more vulnerable to climate change and as humanity’s growing demand for food, fuel and material sourced from forests in the land they stand on continues to grow,’ Goldman told journalists. Agriculture, fires cause most losses Primary tropical forests – such as the Amazon in Latin America, the Congo Basin and rainforests in Southeast Asia – are critical carbon sinks that help regulate the global climate by absorbing vast amounts of planet-heating CO2. Their loss weakens one of the world’s most important defences against planetary heating. Agricultural expansion, driven both by industrial agribusinesses and shifting cultivation for subsistence, returned to being the leading cause of forest destruction in the tropics last year, the Global Forest Watch analysis found. After hitting a record high in 2024, fires – which are usually started by humans – still contributed to around a third of forest destruction in those critical regions. Climate change is increasing fire risk in the tropics by creating hotter, drier conditions that allow blazes to spread more easily. Lula’s policies drive progress in Brazil Trends in global forest destruction are significantly influenced by what happens in Brazil, home to the world’s largest remaining rainforest. In 2025, the South American nation recorded a 42% fall in primary forest loss and its lowest-ever rate of forest loss caused by reasons other than fire. Analysts said Brazil’s progress in tackling forest loss is a result of the stronger environmental protection and enforcement actions introduced since President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva returned to office in 2023, after years of budget cuts and policy rollbacks under his pro-business predecessor Jair Bolsonaro. Lula’s administration revived the Action Plan for the Prevention and Control of Deforestation in the Legal Amazon (PPCDAm), an anti-deforestation framework that coordinates actions across federal agencies and promotes strengthened monitoring, commodities tracking and support for sustainable livelihoods. The Brazilian government also beefed up the activities of the federal environmental agency Ibama, which between 2023 and 2025 issued 81% more infraction notices and 64% more fines than in the previous two-year period. ‘Brazil’s progress shows what’s possible when forest protection is treated as a national priority,’ said Mirela Sandrini, executive director of WRI Brasil, adding that the success is derived from building partnerships between the government, civil society, academia, local communities and the private sector. Neighbouring Amazon country Bolivia recorded the second-highest amount of primary forest loss in the world last year, despite being home to a fraction of the forest held by other rainforest nations like Indonesia or the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Fires, likely started by humans, were the main cause of forest destruction in Bolivia, alongside the expansion of cattle ranching and crops such as soy and maize, the WRI analysis said. Forest loss also remained high last year in countries including Peru, Laos and the DRC. Malaysia and Indonesia showed stable and relatively low levels of forest loss compared to the highs reached in the mid-2010, although experts said Jakarta’s plans to massively expand food and energy production risk threatening the progress seen in the past decade. Global policies and cash needed Analysts said protecting the world’s remaining tropical forests will depend not only on national political leadership but also on global policy and financial developments. Those include the creation of the Tropical Forest Forever Facility (TFFF), a major new rainforest protection fund launched by Brazil at COP30. The mechanism, which gives financial rewards to countries that keep trees standing, has been billed as an historic opportunity to finance forest production. But it is far from raising the $125 billion of public and private investment needed for it to reach a meaningful scale and is unlikely to start making payments until 2028. Apr 10, 2026 Comment How a global roadmap can meet the promise to halt deforestation Meeting the goal requires political will and a pathway that brings together efforts and drives implementation. An international roadmap can deliver this Read more Apr 10, 2026 Aviation’s Green Dream UK imports of ‘green’ jet fuel linked to Amazon deforestation A Texas refinery shipping sustainable aviation fuel to Europe has sourced beef tallow with links to a meatpacking firm fined over illegal cattle purchases Read more After failing to secure a negotiated agreement on forest protection at COP30, Brazil promised it would deliver this year a global roadmap charting a course to end deforestation by 2030. The COP30 presidency said it has received 177 contributions from governments, UN agencies, business groups and civil society with suggestions on what the document should include. What countries want in the roadmap The Coalition of Rainforest Nations, which includes 50 countries, wants the roadmap to adopt a ‘global carbon budget’ lens, mapping out region by region where CO2 emissions cuts are most urgent and where existing forest carbon stocks must be protected. The negotiating bloc also wants finance, including from carbon markets, to be given a prominent space in the document, which will need to obtain broad support from governments to be effective. Without it, the roadmap ‘risks becoming yet another [plan] collecting dust on the shelves of posterity’, its submission said. Colombia said interventions should focus on tackling the root causes of deforestation, pointing out that forest loss in the country is concentrated in regions afflicted by deep inequalities, high levels of poverty and the widespread presence of organised crime. Indonesia wants the roadmap to function as a collaborative platform that ‘strengthens partnerships’, but warns that international initiatives should ‘avoid unilateral measures that may undermine trust and effective cooperation’, a thinly veiled rebuke of the European Union’s deforestation regulation. In its submission, the United Kingdom said the roadmap should focus on a small number of ‘critical interventions’ that can unlock the greatest progress, such as securing legal land rights for Indigenous communities, encouraging sustainable land use and introducing demand-side measures to promote deforestation-free products. Meanwhile, Russia voiced its opposition to the creation of a ‘universal roadmap’ to end deforestation, saying it instead wants to see a ‘dedicated dialogue’ on forests where countries just exchange best practices. The post Brazil leads ‘encouraging’ decline in global rainforest destruction in 2025 appeared first on Climate Home News.