Global forest loss slows but El Niño fires could threaten progress

Key developments are emerging from the global stage. Global forest loss slows but El Niño fires could threaten progress 16 hours ago Share Save Add as preferred on Google Mark Poynting Climate researcher via Getty Images The Amazon rainforest disappeared less quickly in 2025 than in 2024 The loss of tropical rainforests slowed last year, new satellite data suggests, largely due to Brazil's efforts to curb deforestation in the Amazon. Researchers estimate that nearly 43,000 sq km (17,000 sq miles) of old-growth tropical forests were lost globally in 2025 – about the size of Denmark. While it is about a third lower than record losses in 2024, scientists warn that tropical forests - among the Earth's most important ecosystems - are still disappearing much faster than a decade ago.

There is also concern that a two-pronged attack from climate change and the arrival of the warming El Niño weather pattern later this year could increase the likelihood and severity of forest fires. The latest figures show that the loss of tropical forests fell by 36% in 2025, according to analysis from the World Resources Institute and the University of Maryland. The data comes with a degree of uncertainty, however, as losses towards the end of one year might only be detected by satellites at the beginning of the next, but scientists are confident about the overall trend.

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The decline last year partly reflects an easing of the unprecedented fires of 2024, helped by cooler La Niña conditions instead of the warmer El Niño. But researchers also point to greater efforts to protect forests in countries such as Brazil, Colombia and Malaysia. "It's incredibly encouraging to see the decline in 2025," said Elizabeth Goldman, co-director of Global Forest Watch at the World Resources Institute.

" highlights how when we have political will the leaders in charge who want to do something for forests, we can see real results in the data," she added. In Brazil, home to the world's largest rainforest, researchers highlight the effects of stronger environmental policies and law enforcement in helping to slow deforestation. Excluding losses driven by fires, an estimated 5,700 sq km (2,200 sq miles) of old-growth tropical forests disappeared in Brazil last year - the lowest figure since the analysis began in 2002.

Tropical rainforests are home to millions of species, and in a healthy state they take up vast quantities of planet-warming carbon dioxide, helping to keep the Earth cool. They have come under increasing pressure, however, as a result of decades of deliberate land clearance for agriculture and logging, as well as climate change, which scientists warn can create the conditions for bigger fires to spread. World leaders pledged to "halt and reverse" forest loss by 2030 at the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow in 2021, but progress towards that pledge remains way off track.

In 2024, tropical forests disappeared faster than ever before, driven by fires amplified by human-caused climate change and the El Niño weather pattern .

The development has drawn wide international attention, with diplomatic circles watching closely.