Deforestation or forest clearance is the removal and destruction of a forest or stand of trees from land that is then converted to non-forest use.SAFnet Dictionary|Definition For [deforestation] . Dictionary of forestry.org (29 July 2008). Retrieved 15 May 2011. Deforestation can involve conversion of forest land to farms, ranches, or urban use. About 31% of Earth's land surface is covered by forests at present.Deforestation|Threats|WWF. Worldwildlife.org. Retrieved 13 November 2016. This is one-third less than the forest cover before the expansion of agriculture, with half of that loss occurring in the last century. On average 2,400 trees are cut down each minute. Estimates vary widely as to the extent of deforestation in the tropics. In 2019, nearly a third of the overall tree cover loss, or 3.8 million hectares, occurred within humid tropical primary forests. These are areas of mature rainforest that are especially important for biodiversity and carbon storage.
By far, the direct cause of most deforestation is agriculture. In 2025 nearly 90% of global deforestation was caused by agriculture, with cropland expansion and pasture creation the primary drivers, this is up from more than 80% in 2012. Forests are being converted to plantations for coffee, palm oil, rubber and various other popular products. Livestock grazing also drives deforestation. Further drivers are the wood industry (logging), urbanization and mining. The effects of climate change are another cause via the increased risk of wildfires (see deforestation and climate change).
Deforestation results in habitat destruction which in turn leads to biodiversity loss. Deforestation also leads to extinction of animals and plants, changes to the local climate, and displacement of indigenous people who live in forests. Deforested regions often also suffer from other environmental problems such as desertification and soil erosion.
Another problem is that deforestation reduces the uptake of carbon dioxide (carbon sequestration) from the atmosphere. This reduces the potential of forests to assist with climate change mitigation. The role of forests in capturing and storing carbon and mitigating climate change is also important for the agricultural sector. The reason for this linkage is that the effects of climate change on agriculture pose new risks to global food systems.
Since 1990, it is estimated that some 420 million hectares of forest have been lost through conversion to other land uses, although the rate of deforestation has decreased over the past three decades. Between 2015 and 2020, the rate of deforestation was estimated at 10 million hectares per year, down from 16 million hectares per year in the 1990s. The area of primary forest worldwide has decreased by over 80 million hectares since 1990. More than 100 million hectares of forests are adversely affected by forest fires, pests, diseases, invasive species, drought and adverse weather events.
Definition
Deforestation is defined as the conversion of forest to other land uses (regardless of whether it is human-induced).
Deforestation and forest area net change are not the same: the latter is the sum of all forest losses (deforestation) and all forest gains (forest expansion) in a given period. Net change, therefore, can be positive or negative, depending on whether gains exceed losses, or vice versa.
Current status by continent, region, country
The world has a total forest area of 4.14 billion hectares (ha), which is 32% of the global land area and equivalent to 0.50 ha of forest per person. The tropical domain has the largest proportion of the world’s forests (45%), followed by the boreal, temperate and subtropical domains. Of the regions, Europe has the largest forest area, accounting for 25% of the world’s total. South America has the highest proportion of forest, at 49% of the total land area. More than half (54%) of the world’s forests is in only five countries (in descending order by area).; Russia, Brazil, Canada, the United States of America and China.
The rate of net forest loss decreased globally from 10.7 million ha per year between 1990–2000 to 3.68 million ha per year in 2000–2015 due mainly to large increases in forest area in Canada, China, the Russian Federation and the United States of America. The annual rate of net forest loss increased in the period 2015–2025, to 4.12 million ha, due to a reduction in the rate of forest gain (i.e. afforestation and natural forest expansion).
The FAO estimates that the global forest carbon stock has decreased 0.9%, and tree cover 4.2% between 1990 and 2020. +Changes in forest carbon stock by regionFigures in gigatonsRegion19902020Europe (including Russia)158.7172.4North America136.6140.0Africa94.380.9South and Southeast Asia combined45.841.5Oceania33.433.1Central America5.04.1South America161.8144.8 As of 2019 there is still disagreement about whether the global forest is shrinking or not: "While above-ground biomass carbon stocks are estimated to be declining in the tropics, they are increasing globally due to increasing stocks in temperate and boreal forest.
Deforestation in many countries—both naturally occurring and human-induced—is an ongoing issue. Between 2000 and 2012, of forests around the world were cut down."Facts About Rainforests" . The Nature Conservancy. Retrieved 19 October 2015. Deforestation and forest degradation continue to take place at alarming rates, which contributes significantly to the ongoing loss of biodiversity.
Forest area increased in Asia between 1990 and 2025, albeit at a lower rate in the most recent decade. Forest area also increased over the 35-year period in Europe and to a lesser extent in North and Central America. Forest area has declined substantially in Africa and South America since 1990, although the rate of loss slowed in both regions in the decade to 2025.
An estimated 489 million ha of forest has been lost worldwide through deforestation since 1990, but the rate of loss has slowed. The deforestation rate was estimated at 10.9 million ha per year in 2015–2025, down from 13.6 million ha per year in 2000–2015 and 17.6 million ha per year in 1990–2000. The rate of forest expansion slowed from 9.88 million ha per year in 2000–2015 to 6.78 million ha per year in the decade to 2025.
Deforestation is more extreme in tropical and subtropical forests in emerging economies. More than half of all plant and land animal species in the world live in tropical forests.Rainforest Facts . Nature.org (1 November 2016). Retrieved 13 November 2016. As a result of deforestation, only remain of the original of tropical rainforest that formerly covered the Earth. More than 3.6 million hectares of virgin tropical forest was lost in 2018.Human society under urgent threat from loss of Earth's natural life. Scientists reveal 1 million species at risk of extinction in damning UN report 6 May 2019 Guardian
The global annual net loss of trees is estimated to be approximately 10 billion. According to the Global Forest Resources Assessment 2020 the global average annual deforested land in the 2015–2020 demi-decade was 10 million hectares and the average annual forest area net loss in the 2000–2010 decade was 4.7 million hectares. The world has lost 178 million ha of forest since 1990, which is an area about the size of Libya.
An analysis of global deforestation patterns in 2021 showed that patterns of trade, production, and consumption drive deforestation rates in complex ways. While the location of deforestation can be mapped, it does not always match where the commodity is consumed. For example, consumption patterns in G7 countries are estimated to cause an average loss of 3.9 trees per person per year. In other words, deforestation can be directly related to imports—for example, coffee.
In 2023, the Global Forest Watch reported a 9% decline in tropical primary forest loss compared to the previous year, with significant regional reductions in Brazil and Colombia overshadowed by increases elsewhere, leading to a 3.2% rise in global deforestation. Massive wildfires in Canada, exacerbated by climate change, contributed to a 24% increase in global tree cover loss, highlighting the ongoing threats to forests essential for carbon storage and biodiversity. Despite some progress, the overall trends in forest destruction and climate impacts remain off track.
The IPCC Sixth Assessment Report stated in 2022: "Over 420 million ha of forest were lost to deforestation from 1990 to 2020; more than 90% of that loss took place in tropical areas (high confidence), threatening biodiversity, environmental services, livelihoods of forest communities and resilience to climate shocks (high confidence)."Ometto, J.P., K. Kalaba, G.Z. Anshari, N. Chacón, A. Farrell, S.A. Halim, H. Neufeldt, and R. Sukumar, 2022: CrossChapter Paper 7: Tropical Forests. In: Climate Change 2022: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability. Contribution of Working Group II to the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [H.-O. Pörtner, D.C. Roberts, M. Tignor, E.S. Poloczanska, K. Mintenbeck, A. Alegría, M. Craig, S. Langsdorf, S. Löschke, V. Möller, A. Okem, B. Rama (eds.)]. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK and New York, NY, USA, pp. 2369–2410, doi:10.1017/9781009325844.024.
See also: Deforestation by continent
Rates of deforestation
Global deforestationDuke Press policy studies / Global deforestation and the nineteenth-century world economy / edited by Richard P. Tucker and J. F. Richards sharply accelerated around 1852.E. O. Wilson, 2002, The Future of Life, Vintage .Map reveals extent of deforestation in tropical countries, guardian.co.uk, 1 July 2008. As of 1947, the planet had of mature tropical forests,Maycock, Paul F. Deforestation. WorldBookOnline. but by 2015, it was estimated that about half of these had been destroyed.Ron Nielsen, The Little Green Handbook: Seven Trends Shaping the Future of Our Planet, Picador, New York (2006) . Total land coverage by tropical rainforests decreased from 14% to 6%. Much of this loss happened between 1960 and 1990, when 20% of all tropical rainforests were destroyed. At this rate, extinction of such forests is projected to occur by the mid-21st century.
In the early 2000s, some scientists predicted that unless significant measures (such as seeking out and protecting old growth forests that have not been disturbed) are taken on a worldwide basis, by 2030 there will only be 10% remaining, with another 10% in a degraded condition. 80% will have been lost, and with them hundreds of thousands of irreplaceable species.
Estimates vary widely as to the extent of deforestation in the tropics. In 2019, the world lost nearly 12 million hectares of tree cover. Nearly a third of that loss, 3.8 million hectares, occurred within humid tropical primary forests, areas of mature rainforest that are especially important for biodiversity and carbon storage. This is equivalent to losing an area of primary forest the size of a football pitch every six seconds.
Rates of change
A 2002 analysis of satellite imagery suggested that the rate of deforestation in the humid tropics (approximately 5.8 million hectares per year) was roughly 23% lower than the most commonly quoted rates. A 2005 report by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimated that although the Earth's total forest area continued to decrease at about 13 million hectares per year, the global rate of deforestation had been slowing.Committee On Forestry. FAO (16 March 2001). Retrieved 29 August 2010. On the other hand, a 2005 analysis of satellite images reveals that deforestation of the Amazon rainforest is twice as fast as scientists previously estimated.Satellite images reveal Amazon forest shrinking faster, csmonitor.com, 21 October 2005.