plate 036 · 2025 data
Tropical forests lost a record 6.7 million hectares in 2024
Tropical primary forest loss per year, million hectares, as stated by WRI's Global Forest Review.
A planet under pressure
- 1. Heat that bleaches coral reached 84% of the world's reefs
- 2. Swiss glaciers lost over 5% of their ice in 2026
- 3. Canada's 2023 fires burned more than twice the old record
- 4. Tropical forests lost a record 6.7 million hectares in 2024
- 5. Drought cut Panama Canal transits by a fifth in 2024
- 6. China adds more forest each year than any other country
- 7. Kyoto's cherry blossoms now peak earliest in 1,200 years
- 8. Brazil's Amazon lost the least forest on record
- 9. Three in four Bangkok residents now live on a floodplain
6.7 Mha
2024 loss was the highest on record (since 2002), with fire the leading driver for the first time.
+81%
Loss jumped from 3.7 Mha in 2023 to 6.7 Mha in 2024.
4.3 Mha
2025 loss fell 36% from the 2024 record, but still topped 2023.
the numbers & method
| Year | Tropical primary forest loss (Mha) |
|---|---|
| 2023 | 3.7 |
| 2024 | 6.7 |
| 2025 | 4.3 |
Claim types Fact
Only years with explicitly stated totals are shown: 2023 (gfr.wri.org/global-tree-cover-loss-data-2023), 2024 (data-2024 page), 2025 (gfr.wri.org/gfr/forest-pulse). Earlier years omitted because no explicit figure was retrieved. Loss includes fire-driven loss, not only deforestation.
Published 19 Oct 2026
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