Deforestation
Deforestation
Deforestation is the permanent conversion of forest to another land use. Although the global rate of deforestation has declined from the levels recorded during parts of the twentieth century, millions of hectares of forest continue to disappear every year. Forest loss remains particularly concentrated in tropical regions, where agricultural expansion, cattle ranching, plantations, mining, roads, logging, settlement and infrastructure development continue to transform some of the world's most biologically diverse ecosystems.
Deforestation should be distinguished from the broader concept of tree-cover loss. Satellite systems can detect the removal of trees caused by logging, wildfire, storms or harvesting, even when forests later regenerate. Deforestation generally refers to a more lasting conversion, such as replacing rainforest with pasture, cropland, mines, roads or urban development. Forest degradation is another related process in which forests remain standing but lose biomass, biodiversity, ecological integrity or their ability to store carbon.
Recent research and monitoring show a complicated global picture. Some countries, most notably Brazil during periods of stronger enforcement, have demonstrated that rapid reductions in forest clearing are possible. At the same time, continued agricultural expansion, rising commodity prices, mining, wildfire, infrastructure projects and political changes repeatedly threaten those gains. Declining clear-cut deforestation can also coexist with increasing forest degradation caused by drought, fire and selective logging.
Agriculture and the Main Drivers of Deforestation
Agriculture is the largest global driver of permanent deforestation. Forests are cleared to create cattle pasture and fields or plantations producing commodities including soy, palm oil, cocoa, coffee, rubber and sugarcane. Small-scale agriculture is important in parts of Africa and other tropical regions, while industrial commodity production dominates forest conversion in many major frontier areas.
Cattle ranching has been especially important in the Amazon. Roads and settlements frequently penetrate previously intact forest, after which trees are removed and land is converted to pasture. Agricultural expansion can then increase land values and encourage additional roads, speculation and settlement, producing a cycle in which one clearing creates conditions for further forest loss.
Soy production has also played an important role in South American land-use change. Market agreements such as Brazil's Amazon Soy Moratorium demonstrated that commodity buyers can influence deforestation by refusing crops grown on recently cleared land. Concern has consequently grown that weakening such agreements could remove an important barrier to agricultural expansion.
Palm-oil and timber plantations are major concerns in Indonesia and other parts of Southeast Asia. Corporate zero-deforestation commitments have reduced some forms of forest conversion, but investigations continue to identify loopholes, indirect suppliers and poorly monitored concessions that allow forest loss to persist.
Cocoa production is increasingly associated with forest clearing in West Africa and parts of the Congo Basin. Recent reporting from Liberia, for example, describes cocoa farms spreading into native forests and areas proposed for national-park protection. Coffee production has similarly contributed to historical forest conversion in countries including Vietnam.
The relationship between agriculture and deforestation does not mean that increased food production inevitably requires continued forest destruction. Higher agricultural productivity, improved land-use planning, agroforestry, restoration of degraded land and stronger protection of existing forests can allow food production to increase without continually expanding farmland into natural ecosystems.
Mining, Logging, Roads, and Infrastructure
Mining is an increasingly visible driver of tropical forest destruction. High gold prices have stimulated legal and illegal mining throughout the Amazon, including within protected areas and Indigenous territories. Mining removes vegetation directly but can also produce larger indirect effects by creating roads, settlements, markets and transportation networks.
Illegal gold mining brings additional environmental consequences. Mercury used in gold processing contaminates rivers and aquatic ecosystems, while mining camps can encourage land grabbing, organized crime and further settlement. Satellite monitoring increasingly allows authorities and researchers to identify mining expansion in remote forests.
Logging can degrade forests even when it does not immediately result in complete deforestation. Logging roads fragment intact landscapes and make previously inaccessible forests easier to enter. Selective timber extraction may therefore become the first stage in a longer process leading to agricultural settlement, fire and eventual conversion.
Transportation infrastructure has repeatedly produced similar effects. Major highways can open vast forest regions to migration, mining, ranching and land speculation. Secondary roads branching from a major highway may eventually produce considerably more clearing than the original road itself.
Railways, dams, energy projects and new urban developments can also encourage forest conversion. Such projects may remove relatively small areas directly while stimulating much larger changes in surrounding landscapes.
The Amazon and Latin America
The Amazon remains one of the central regions in the global debate over deforestation. Its forests contain extraordinary biological diversity, store immense quantities of carbon and recycle atmospheric moisture across South America.
Brazil has demonstrated that government policy can strongly influence the rate of forest loss. Satellite monitoring, environmental enforcement, protected areas, Indigenous territories and restrictions on commodity supply chains contributed to substantial reductions in Amazon deforestation during several periods. More recent declines again demonstrate that forest destruction is not an unavoidable consequence of economic development.
Nevertheless, the Amazon continues to face pressure from cattle ranching, soy production, mining, illegal logging, roads, land speculation and infrastructure development. Political decisions that weaken environmental regulations or enforcement can rapidly alter incentives along forest frontiers.
Other Amazonian nations face similar challenges. Mining and highway development have transformed parts of Peru. Cattle ranching and coca production contribute to forest clearing in Colombia. Ecuadorian producers are developing traceability systems designed to demonstrate that agricultural exports do not originate from recently deforested land.
Indigenous territories have emerged as an especially important component of Amazon conservation. Research frequently finds lower rates of forest loss where Indigenous communities possess secure territorial rights. Protecting land tenure can therefore serve both human-rights and conservation objectives.
Southeast Asia and New Guinea
Indonesia has experienced enormous historical forest losses associated with logging, palm oil, timber plantations, mining and agricultural development. After years in which the rate of deforestation declined, recent evidence has raised concern that forest loss could again accelerate.
Government-backed food and energy projects are creating a new source of pressure, particularly in Papua. Large rice, sugarcane and biofuel developments could convert extensive areas of rainforest, wetlands and customary Indigenous land.
Forest fires are another major threat. Peatlands and degraded forests can burn intensely during dry periods, releasing large quantities of carbon. Climate conditions such as El Niño can increase the probability that fires escape agricultural areas and spread through forests.
Cambodia, Laos and other Mekong countries have experienced substantial tree-cover loss, including inside formally protected areas. Dams, mining, plantations, roads and other development projects demonstrate that legal designation alone does not guarantee effective forest protection.
New Guinea contains some of the planet's largest remaining tropical wilderness areas. Its lowland forests are especially rich in species but increasingly vulnerable to logging, agricultural expansion and infrastructure development.
Africa and the Congo Basin
The Congo Basin contains the world's second-largest tropical rainforest and represents one of the most important remaining reservoirs of tropical biodiversity and forest carbon.
Forest loss across Africa is caused by a combination of small-scale agriculture, commercial crops, timber extraction, mining, roads, fuelwood harvesting, settlement and infrastructure. The relative importance of these drivers varies substantially among countries and regions.
Cocoa expansion is becoming an important issue in parts of West and Central Africa. Programs promoting agroforestry and higher yields on existing farmland are intended to increase farmer incomes without requiring continued expansion into forest.
Mining also creates direct and indirect forest pressures. Roads and settlements associated with large mines can encourage population growth and agricultural expansion far beyond the mine itself.
African montane forests face additional risks. Research indicates that forest removal can increase local temperatures, alter cloud formation and threaten water supplies. Historical land-use changes in areas such as Kenya's central highlands demonstrate that forest loss can reshape landscapes over periods lasting generations.
Climate, Rainfall, Fire, and Forest Degradation
Forests influence climate not only by storing carbon but also through evapotranspiration, cloud formation and atmospheric moisture transport. Trees release enormous quantities of water vapor, helping generate rainfall both locally and far downwind.
Research in the Amazon indicates that extensive deforestation can reduce dry-season rainfall and increase temperatures. Continued clearing therefore risks creating feedback loops in which forest loss makes remaining forests hotter and drier, increasing their vulnerability to additional fires and drought.
These effects have consequences far beyond forest boundaries. Atmospheric moisture generated over tropical forests contributes to rainfall over agricultural regions and cities. Large-scale forest loss can therefore threaten water supplies and food production.
Wildfire is increasingly important in measurements of global tree-cover loss. Climate change, drought and human ignition interact with forest degradation to make some landscapes more flammable. Repeated severe fires can prevent normal forest recovery and eventually push ecosystems toward more open vegetation.
This distinction is important when interpreting recent improvements in deforestation statistics. A decline in clear-cutting does not necessarily mean that forest ecosystems are recovering if wildfire, drought, fragmentation and selective logging continue to degrade them.
Biodiversity and Human Consequences
Deforestation destroys and fragments habitat, threatening plants, animals, fungi and microorganisms that depend on forest ecosystems. Tropical forests contain a disproportionate share of global terrestrial biodiversity, including many species with extremely limited geographic ranges.
Fragmentation can leave apparently substantial areas of forest ecologically isolated. Species may lose access to feeding areas, breeding populations or migration routes even where some tree cover remains.
Forest loss also directly affects people. Hundreds of millions of people depend on forests for food, fuel, water, medicine, materials and livelihoods. Indigenous and traditional communities are particularly affected when forests are cleared or converted without secure recognition of customary land rights.
Research has also identified important health consequences. Forest removal increases local temperatures, and recent studies associate tropical deforestation with substantial heat-related mortality. Changing forest environments can also alter mosquito habitat and interactions among humans, livestock and wildlife.
Deforestation can therefore be understood simultaneously as a biodiversity issue, a climate issue, a public-health issue, a land-rights issue and an economic-development issue.
Satellite Monitoring and Measuring Forest Loss
Satellite technology has transformed the ability to observe deforestation. Landsat imagery provides a record stretching back several decades and reveals recognizable patterns of roads, settlement and agricultural expansion.
Modern systems such as Global Forest Watch provide near-real-time alerts that can identify new forest disturbances. Governments, researchers, journalists and local communities can use these systems to investigate illegal clearing and direct enforcement resources.
Remote sensing also makes it possible to compare forest disturbance with protected areas, Indigenous territories, mining concessions and agricultural properties. Artificial-intelligence systems are increasingly being used to identify patterns associated with activities such as illegal mining.
Different monitoring systems can nevertheless produce different numbers. FAO forest statistics, national deforestation measurements and satellite tree-cover-loss datasets do not always measure the same phenomenon. Definitions of what constitutes a forest, deforestation or degradation therefore matter when comparing estimates.
Commodity Supply Chains and Global Consumption
Deforestation is not solely a local phenomenon. International demand for beef, leather, soy, palm oil, cocoa, coffee, timber, minerals and other commodities links consumers and corporations around the world to land-use decisions in tropical forest regions.
Supply-chain traceability has therefore become a major conservation strategy. Governments and companies increasingly seek to determine where commodities were produced and whether the land was recently deforested.
The European Union's deforestation regulation represents one of the most ambitious attempts to prevent commodities associated with recent deforestation from entering a major consumer market. Its implementation has generated debates over traceability, country-risk classifications, enforcement and the costs imposed on producers.
Financial institutions are another potential leverage point. Banks and investors can require clients to demonstrate compliance with environmental standards or deny financing to companies connected with illegal clearing.
These approaches attempt to change the economics of deforestation by making access to markets and capital dependent on forest protection.
Governance, Indigenous Rights, and Forest Protection
The effectiveness of forest protection often depends less on the formal existence of environmental laws than on whether governments have the institutions and political willingness to enforce them.
Protected areas can reduce forest loss, but examples from Cambodia, the Amazon and elsewhere demonstrate that illegal logging, mining and agricultural encroachment can continue even within legally protected boundaries.
Secure Indigenous and community land rights are among the most consistently identified mechanisms for protecting forests. Communities with recognized territorial authority often have strong incentives to defend forests against illegal mining, logging and land grabbing.
Enforcement can also produce rapid results. Closure of illegal roads, removal of unauthorized cattle, financial penalties and satellite-based investigations have all been used to reduce forest clearing.
Governance failures, by contrast, can allow environmental crime to become intertwined with corruption, organized crime, land speculation and political influence.
Conservation Finance and Carbon Markets
One proposed solution is to make standing forests economically valuable through conservation finance. REDD+ and other carbon-credit programs attempt to compensate governments, landowners or communities for preventing forest loss and reducing carbon emissions.
The results have been mixed. Some projects have financed conservation and community programs, while investigations have raised questions about land rights, additionality, monitoring and whether promised forest protection actually occurs.
Recent research also suggests that carbon-credit prices alone may be insufficient to compete economically with highly profitable agricultural or extractive activities in many tropical concessions.
Large international proposals such as the Tropical Forests Forever Facility seek to create longer-term payments for countries that maintain tropical forests. Such programs reflect growing recognition that forest conservation provides global climate benefits for which forest nations have historically received little compensation.
Finance is therefore likely to work best when combined with strong environmental laws, secure land rights, transparent monitoring and commodity-market reforms.
Can Deforestation Be Stopped?
Historical experience demonstrates that large-scale deforestation is not inevitable. Many countries have undergone forest transitions in which forest area stabilized or increased after earlier periods of agricultural expansion.
Brazil's reductions in Amazon clearing demonstrate that substantial changes can occur within only a few years when monitoring, enforcement and political incentives are aligned. Similar progress in commodity supply chains suggests that companies and consumer markets can also influence land-use behavior.
However, progress is reversible. Commodity price increases, weakened regulations, infrastructure projects, political transitions and changing global markets can reopen forest frontiers that appeared to be stabilizing.
Long-term reductions in deforestation therefore require more than planting trees. Primary forests store enormous quantities of carbon and support ecological communities that cannot quickly be recreated through plantations or young secondary forests.
Effective strategies include protecting intact forests, securing Indigenous land rights, improving agricultural productivity on existing farmland, restoring degraded land, controlling illegal mining and logging, limiting infrastructure in intact landscapes, improving supply-chain traceability, strengthening environmental enforcement and creating economic incentives for keeping forests standing.
Conclusion
Deforestation is the result of interconnected economic, political and ecological forces rather than a single activity. Agriculture remains the dominant global driver, but mining, logging, roads, infrastructure, wildfire, land speculation and weak governance can reinforce one another and accelerate forest conversion.
The consequences extend well beyond the trees that disappear. Forest loss releases carbon, alters rainfall, intensifies heat, fragments wildlife habitat, threatens freshwater systems and disrupts the lives of communities that depend directly on forests.
At the same time, the evidence provides grounds for cautious optimism. Satellite monitoring has made forest destruction increasingly difficult to hide. Indigenous land protection, stronger environmental enforcement, commodity agreements and conservation programs have demonstrated measurable results in numerous regions.
The central challenge is therefore not whether societies possess tools capable of reducing deforestation, but whether governments, businesses, financial institutions and consumers will create durable economic and political systems in which keeping forests standing is more valuable than destroying them.
Deforestation
Global Forest Loss and Monitoring
| Michelle Sims, Liz Goldman, Peter Potapov and Sarah Carter | Global Forest Watch | 2026-04-29
This guide explains what satellite-measured tree-cover loss does and does not represent and why it differs from official national deforestation statistics.
| Sarah Carter et al. | Global Forest Watch | 2026-03-20
A new satellite alert system extends near-real-time vegetation disturbance monitoring beyond tropical forests to forests and other ecosystems worldwide.
| FAO | Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations | 2025-12-16
FAO introduced a set of analytical tools intended to help governments identify the agricultural, economic and governance factors behind deforestation and design responses that address them together.
| FAO | Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations | 2025-10-21
FAO's Global Forest Resources Assessment 2025 finds that global deforestation has slowed compared with earlier decades, but roughly 10.9 million hectares of forest are still being cleared annually.
Experts warn that global forest clearing remains far above the trajectory required to meet the international commitment to halt deforestation by 2030.
| Yale Environment 360 | Yale Environment 360 | 2025
A global assessment concludes that the world remains far off track for ending deforestation by 2030 despite some forest regrowth and regional progress.
| Nature Communications | Nature Communications | 2025
A global study examines how newly established forests influence carbon sequestration after land-cover conversion, providing context for restoration versus primary-forest protection.
| Viviana Zalles, Nancy Harris, Fred Stolle and Matt Hansen | Global Forest Watch | 2024-11-11
Different definitions of a forest can produce substantially different estimates of forest loss and can affect which ecosystems qualify for protection.
| Hannah Ritchie | Our World in Data | 2024-11
This overview compiles global forest-loss indicators, explains measurement differences and tracks where deforestation is occurring today.
| FAO | Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations | 2024-07-22
The State of the World's Forests 2024 explores the combined pressure of timber demand, wildfire, pests, climate change and land-use change on global forests.
| FAO | Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations | 2024-03-21
New satellite and mobile technologies are making forest monitoring increasingly accessible to governments, Indigenous communities and conservation organizations.
| Hannah Ritchie | Our World in Data | 2023-09-19
Evidence suggests global deforestation peaked in the 1980s, even though current tropical forest loss remains ecologically and climatically consequential.
| FAO | Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations | 2022-05-03
FAO satellite analysis found that tropical forests accounted for more than 90 percent of worldwide deforestation between 2000 and 2018.
| FAO | Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations | 2022
FAO examines how agricultural production can be increased without continuing to expand farmland into forests, with particular attention to small farmers and livestock systems.
| FAO | Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations | 2021
FAO estimates that agricultural expansion accounts for almost 90 percent of global deforestation, making food production central to efforts to halt forest loss.
Scientific Research on Deforestation
Updated global data show forest fires are becoming a larger component of tree-cover loss, especially as hotter and drier conditions make forests more flammable.
| World Resources Institute | World Resources Institute | 2026-07-15
WRI examines how land management, climate change and human ignition are reshaping fire regimes and what policies could reduce destructive burning.
| World Resources Institute | World Resources Institute | 2026-04-29
Global Forest Watch data show tropical primary-rainforest loss fell sharply in 2025 after the fire-driven 2024 record, though loss remained historically high.
| Sarah Carter; James MacCarthy; Masha T. van der Sande | World Resources Institute | 2026-04-15
The article explains why some forests recover after wildfire while repeated or severe burning can convert ecosystems and permanently reduce tree cover.
| Peter Richards and Eugenio Arima | Communications Earth & Environment | 2026-02-03
High profits from soybean-corn agriculture are associated with rising land prices and higher deforestation pressure in Mato Grosso's Amazon forests.
| Matt Hansen; Craig Hanson | World Resources Institute | 2026-01-13
Land clearing warms and dries landscapes while climate change increases fire and drought, creating feedback loops that can accelerate additional forest loss.
| Jiangpeng Cui et al. | Nature Communications | 2026-01-13
Historical forest clearing across southern Amazonia has substantially reduced the atmospheric moisture available for rainfall.
| Rod Taylor | World Resources Institute | 2025-12-01
WRI argues that forests can either strengthen climate and economic resilience or become growing carbon liabilities when degradation and fire are allowed to spread.
| Marcus V. F. Silveira et al. | Communications Earth & Environment | 2025-11-21
Heavily deforested Amazon landscapes show higher temperatures, reduced evapotranspiration, fewer rainy days and lower dry-season precipitation.
| Marco A. Franco et al. | Nature Communications | 2025-09-02
Researchers separate the effects of global climate change from local forest clearing and find that deforestation has significantly reduced dry-season rainfall in the Brazilian Amazon.
| The Guardian | The Guardian | 2025-08-27
Research estimates that tropical deforestation has caused substantial heat-related mortality by removing local cooling and reducing moisture recycling.
| C. L. Reddington et al. | Nature Climate Change | 2025-08-27
A pan-tropical study links forest clearing to localized warming and estimates a substantial burden of heat-related mortality in deforested regions.
| Nancy Harris; Melissa Rose | World Resources Institute | 2025-07-24
New analysis finds the global forest carbon sink shrinking as deforestation, degradation and fire erode forests’ ability to absorb carbon dioxide.
| Nature Research Highlight | Nature | 2025-03-07
Secondary roads branching from major forest roads can cause far more forest loss than the initial road itself by opening previously inaccessible land.
| Wim Thiery | Nature | 2025-03-05
Amazon forest clearing can increase rainfall during the wet season while reducing rainfall during the dry season, when trees are most vulnerable to water stress.
| Yingzuo Qin et al. | Nature | 2025-03-05
Satellite observations and modeling reveal that Amazonian deforestation affects rainfall differently between wet and dry seasons.
| Jean Ometto et al. | Nature Communications | 2025
Carbon gains in undisturbed and regenerating Amazon forests have increasingly been outweighed by losses caused by deforestation, degradation and agricultural land use.
| A. P. Antunes et al. | Nature | 2025
Deforestation and urbanization reduce wild-meat productivity in Amazonia, threatening food systems that remain important to many rural and Indigenous communities.
| Fred Pearce | Dialogue Earth | 2018
Deforestation can disrupt atmospheric moisture flows or “flying rivers,” altering rainfall far beyond the area where trees are removed.
Satellite Monitoring and the History of Forest Loss
| Max Roser | Our World in Data | 2026-02-26
Historical data show that many countries have passed through forest transitions, demonstrating that economic development does not have to require continuing net deforestation.
| NASA Earth Observatory | NASA | 2026
A long-running satellite sequence documents the spread of roads, farms and cattle pasture across Rondônia and illustrates the classic fishbone pattern of Amazon deforestation.
| Madeleine Gregory | NASA | 2024-09-23
Landsat scientists are expanding Amazon monitoring beyond closed-canopy rainforest to include savannas, grasslands, wetlands and ecological transition zones.
| Hannah Ritchie | Our World in Data | 2021-02-06
The explainer distinguishes permanent deforestation from temporary tree-cover loss and forest degradation, an important distinction when interpreting satellite data.
| NASA Earth Observatory | NASA | 2021
Smoke from fires in Rondônia and Amazonas illustrates the close relationship between agricultural clearing, drought conditions and Amazon fire seasons.
NASA describes how satellite observations can track vegetation health, drought, fire and deforestation across large landscapes.
| Adam Voiland | NASA Earth Observatory | 2019
Decades of satellite observations reveal the dramatic rise, decline and geographic movement of Amazon forest clearing.
| NASA Earth Observatory | NASA | 2019
The spatial patterns visible from satellites provide clues to the economic, political and settlement processes responsible for different waves of Amazon clearing.
| NASA Earth Observatory | NASA | 2019
Researchers find increasingly dry atmospheric conditions over parts of Amazonia, with some of the strongest changes occurring where forest clearing and agriculture are concentrated.
| M. C. Hansen et al. | Science / U.S. Geological Survey | 2013
The landmark global Landsat analysis mapped forest loss and gain at 30-meter resolution and helped establish the data foundation used by modern forest-monitoring systems.
| Aries C. Keck | NASA | 2012-07-23
Landsat imagery documents characteristic patterns of tropical forest clearing and the strong influence of road construction on subsequent settlement.
| Y. Pan et al. | Science / U.S. Geological Survey | 2011
Forest inventories show that global forests absorb enormous quantities of carbon, while emissions from tropical deforestation substantially offset that sink.
Amazon and Latin America
| The Guardian | The Guardian | 2026-08-14
The Amazon faces heightened drought and fire risk from a powerful El Niño, magnifying the vulnerability created by prior deforestation and degradation.
| Rhett Ayers Butler | Mongabay | 2026-08-09
Brazilian satellite alerts show Amazon clearing at its lowest level since 2013, while logging, drought, degradation and fire remain significant threats.
| Maxwell Radwin | Mongabay | 2026-08-07
Suriname is moving against settlers accused of unauthorized Amazon clearing for agriculture and cattle, testing the government’s ability to enforce forest and land laws.
| Maxwell Radwin | Mongabay | 2026-08-03
Nicaragua’s expanding gold sector is pushing mining into protected forests and Indigenous territories, bringing forest loss, contamination and land conflict.
| Maxwell Radwin | Mongabay | 2026-07-31
Land records and satellite imagery document agricultural expansion by Mennonite communities in Belize and its growing footprint on remaining forest.
| Robert Muggah | Mongabay | 2026-07-30
The article connects high gold prices, organized crime and weak governance to accelerating mining-related destruction across multiple parts of the Amazon.
| Fernanda Wenzel | Mongabay | 2026-07-29
Parakanã leaders warn that political change could revive invasions and forest clearing on Indigenous land that has benefited from stronger recent enforcement.
| Shanna Hanbury | Mongabay | 2026-07-28
A study warns that weakening Brazil’s Soy Moratorium could expose millions of hectares of Amazon forest to new agricultural conversion.
| Mongabay.com | Mongabay | 2026-07-21
Tree-ring records show intensifying hydroclimate extremes in the Amazon, increasing the vulnerability of forests already fragmented or degraded by clearing.
| The Guardian | The Guardian | 2026-07-20
Field reporting from Brazil describes forest destruction, mercury pollution and organized crime associated with illegal gold mining near Indigenous territories.
| Shanna Hanbury | Mongabay | 2026-07-16
Brazil recorded a decade-low level of Amazon deforestation in the first half of 2026, continuing a major decline under strengthened enforcement.
| Sibélia Zanon | Mongabay | 2026-07-14
Amazonian coffee growers in Ecuador are adopting mapping and traceability tools to demonstrate that their crops comply with European deforestation rules.
| Rafael Spuldar | Mongabay | 2026-07-02
After authorities shut an illegal Amazon road, vegetation began reclaiming the corridor, showing how enforcement can halt a pathway that often triggers wider clearing.
| Maxwell Radwin | Mongabay | 2026-06-24
A detailed review of 2025 data finds falling clear-cut deforestation in parts of the Amazon but persistent threats from fires, degradation and regional hotspots.
| Aimee Gabay | Mongabay | 2026-06-22
Enforcement reduced forest clearing in Piripkura Indigenous Territory, yet cattle and ranching infrastructure remain evidence of unresolved occupation.
| The Guardian | The Guardian | 2026-06-17
Colombian Amazon farmers describe how land tenure, rural development, armed groups and election outcomes can determine whether forest-conservation gains persist.
| Rhett Ayers Butler | Mongabay | 2026-06-14
Brazil’s real-time monitoring showed Amazon deforestation alerts at their lowest 12-month level in more than a decade.
| Shanna Hanbury | Mongabay | 2026-06-12
Satellite data indicate declining clearing in the Amazon alongside broader reductions across several Brazilian biomes.
| André Schröder | Mongabay | 2026-06-11
Brazil altered a national park boundary for a grain railway, illustrating how transport infrastructure can create new direct and indirect pressures on forests.
| Nature Editorial | Nature | 2026-06-11
Nature argues that protecting the Amazon requires coordinated action by Brazil, neighboring countries, commodity buyers, financiers and the wider international community.
| Associated Press | AP News | 2026-06
Brazil reported a steep year-over-year decline in Amazon deforestation alerts, reinforcing evidence that enforcement can quickly change forest-loss trajectories.
| The Guardian | The Guardian | 2026-05-14
Brazil’s Atlantic Forest recorded its lowest annual deforestation in four decades, though conservationists warned that legal rollbacks could threaten the improvement.
| Gabriel Matias Castilho | Inside Climate News | 2026-05-14
Data show Amazon deforestation declining while wildfire damage rises, underscoring why clear-cut forest loss alone no longer captures the region’s ecological stress.
| Juan Ortiz | Dialogue Earth | 2026-05-11
A decade after Colombia’s peace agreement, cattle ranching, coca economies and weak land governance continue to drive clearing in the Amazon.
| Associated Press | AP News | 2026-05
High gold prices are fueling illegal mining in Brazil’s Amazon, expanding deforestation and mercury contamination in protected and Indigenous areas.
| Associated Press | AP News | 2026-05
Even as Brazil reduces clear-cut deforestation, fires, logging and drought are causing widespread forest degradation that may weaken the Amazon’s carbon sink.
| Shanna Hanbury | Mongabay | 2026-04-29
A Brazilian state authorized forest clearing for a disputed open-pit gold project, highlighting tension between mining development and forest protection.
The annual Forest Pulse analyzes country-level forest-loss trends, emphasizing Brazil’s improvement and the growing role of fire in tropical forest damage.
| Constance Malleret | Mongabay | 2026-04-24
An AI-assisted monitoring system is identifying illegal gold-mining expansion in Amazon protected areas, giving enforcement agencies faster evidence of forest disturbance.
| Shanna Hanbury | Mongabay | 2026-04-15
Satellite analysis documents fast-growing mining scars on Kayapó Indigenous land, linking high gold prices to deforestation and river contamination.
| Reuters | Reuters | 2026-04-01
Brazil is bringing banks into anti-deforestation enforcement, reflecting growing use of financial controls against illegal land clearing and environmental crime.
| Phys.org | Phys.org | 2026-04
Research finds that apparent Amazon forest recovery can conceal lasting biodiversity change after fire, drought and windstorm disturbance.
| Amanda Magnani | Dialogue Earth | 2026-03-31
The article examines whether the weakening of Brazil’s soy pact could reopen a major pathway for agricultural expansion into the Amazon.
| Rubens Valente | Mongabay | 2026-03-03
Indigenous leaders and farmers react to weakening of the Amazon Soy Moratorium, a private-sector agreement long credited with limiting soy-linked clearing.
| Ginger Cassady | Mongabay | 2026-02-18
The commentary argues that lenders and investors could preserve anti-deforestation safeguards by conditioning finance on continued adherence to the Soy Moratorium.
| Rhett Ayers Butler | Mongabay | 2026-02-17
Early Brazilian monitoring data suggested Amazon clearing could reach a record low if the downward trend continued through the 2025-26 monitoring year.
| Fernanda Wenzel | Mongabay | 2026-02-02
Researchers estimate that collapse of the Amazon Soy Moratorium could substantially increase future clearing by removing a major market barrier to expansion.
| Aimee Gabay | Mongabay | 2026-01-06
Illegal mining and expanding settlements are reshaping an Amazon frontier where roads, land speculation and resource extraction reinforce one another.
| Yale Environment 360 | Yale Environment 360 | 2026
Brazilian monitoring data suggest stronger enforcement could push Amazon deforestation to historically low levels.
| Bob Berwyn | Inside Climate News | 2025-12-09
Brazilian policy changes after COP30 raised concern that weakened safeguards could erode recent progress in controlling Amazon forest loss.
| Georgina Gustin | Inside Climate News | 2025-12-01
The Interoceanic Highway in Peru illustrates how roads can open remote forests to mining, settlement, agriculture and cascading land conversion.
| Jonathan Watts | The Guardian | 2025-11-08
Brazil's progress reducing forest clearing is contrasted with continuing political pressure for roads, mining, oil development and agricultural expansion.
| Nicholas Kusnetz | Inside Climate News | 2025-09-05
Peru’s rejection of a proposed Indigenous reserve raises questions about legal protection for remote forest peoples and territories vulnerable to extraction.
| Katie Surma | Inside Climate News | 2025-07-22
Afro-descendant communities’ territorial rights are examined as a forest-protection and climate strategy in parts of Latin America.
| Charles Barber | World Resources Institute | 2025-07-09
The article links organized crime, illegal mining, land grabbing and illicit economies to forest destruction and weakened governance in the Amazon.
| Associated Press | AP News | 2024-12-27
AP reviews how drought, wildfire and deforestation battered the Amazon in 2024, showing the interaction between land clearing and climate extremes.
| Fernanda Wenzel | Mongabay | 2024-12-09
An investigation examines partnerships between REDD+ developers and logging interests with histories of environmental violations in Pará.
| Rhett Ayers Butler | Mongabay | 2024-12
A year-end review examines falling Brazilian deforestation alongside fire, mining, carbon markets, commodity pressures and emerging threats elsewhere in the tropics.
| Jonathan Watts | The Guardian | 2024-08-22
Brazil deployed large numbers of firefighters as drought turned normally moist Amazon vegetation into highly combustible fuel.
| Fernanda Wenzel | Mongabay | 2024-06-07
Brazilian police investigations connected some forest-carbon projects with allegations involving land grabbing, timber laundering and illegal logging.
| Mark Johanson | World Wildlife Fund | 2024-06-06
Peru's Interoceanic Highway illustrates how major transportation infrastructure can trigger mining, settlement, land speculation and forest clearing far beyond the road itself.
| Reuters | Reuters | 2024-04-09
Brazil reported a sharp first-quarter decline in Amazon clearing as the Lula government restored enforcement programs weakened under the previous administration.
| Rhett Ayers Butler | Mongabay | 2024-01-03
This outlook identifies Brazil, Indonesia, the Congo Basin, carbon markets, commodity prices and improved satellite monitoring as major forest issues to watch.
| WWF | World Wildlife Fund | 2022-11-08
WWF summarizes evidence of Amazon deforestation and degradation and the danger of ecological changes becoming increasingly difficult to reverse.
Indonesia, Cambodia and New Guinea
| Mongabay.com | Mongabay | 2026-08-19
New research finds vast intact forests remain inside Southeast Asian commercial concessions, but current carbon-credit prices alone are too low to make conservation competitive with clearing.
| Etelle Higonnet | Mongabay | 2026-08-03
This commentary argues that low-cost coffee production is contributing to forest conversion in Vietnam and calls for stronger traceability and deforestation-free sourcing.
| Hans Nicholas Jong; Irfan Maulana | Mongabay | 2026-07-29
Indonesia entered the 2026 dry season with unusually high fire-hotspot activity, increasing concern that peat and forest fires could compound direct land clearing.
| Naina Rao | Mongabay | 2026-07-22
A report traces part of Vietnam’s spectacular coffee expansion to decades of forest conversion and highlights the challenge of proving deforestation-free production.
| Muhibar Sobary Ardan | Dialogue Earth | 2026-06-12
The Punan Batu describe rapid forest loss around their ancestral territory in Indonesian Borneo while awaiting legal recognition that could strengthen protection.
| Hans Nicholas Jong | Mongabay | 2026-05-27
Satellite data and investigations show continued Indonesian forest clearing for palm oil despite widespread zero-deforestation pledges, with traceability gaps enabling leakage.
| The Guardian | The Guardian | 2026-05-20
A report warns that rising demand for minerals, biofuels, pulp, meat, gold and palm oil is adding new pressure to the Amazon, Congo Basin and Southeast Asian rainforests.
| Rhett Ayers Butler | Mongabay | 2026-04-28
Indonesia’s forest loss rose sharply in 2025 after years of improvement, with agricultural and development policies among the pressures behind the reversal.
| Reuters | Reuters | 2026-03-31
An NGO analysis found Indonesian forest loss jumped in 2025 amid food and energy self-sufficiency projects, reversing years of declining deforestation.
| Yale Environment 360 | Yale Environment 360 | 2026
Indonesia’s forest loss surged as a large government-backed food-estate project converted rainforest in South Papua to rice and sugarcane.
| Gerald Flynn | Mongabay | 2025-10-06
Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam collectively lost nearly one million hectares of tree cover in 2024, including substantial loss inside protected areas.
| Fred Pearce | Yale Environment 360 | 2025-09-02
A deep report examines Indonesia’s enormous Papua mega-farm project and its potential impacts on forests, wetlands and Indigenous communities.
| Hans Nicholas Jong | Mongabay | 2025-08
Satellite analysis attributes Indonesian forest loss to logging, palm oil, timber plantations, mining, government food projects and fire, while leaving a large share unexplained.
| Georgina Gustin | Inside Climate News | 2025-05-30
The investigation traces Chinese bank financing to companies exposed to forest-risk commodities in Africa, Southeast Asia and the Amazon.
| Carolyn Cowan | Mongabay | 2025-05-21
Modeling shows that New Guinea's exceptionally species-rich lowland forests are particularly vulnerable to roads, logging and agricultural expansion.
| Gerald Flynn | Mongabay | 2025-04
Satellite imagery documented forest clearing for a cement project inside Cambodia's Prey Lang Wildlife Sanctuary.
| Gerald Flynn | Mongabay | 2025-03-19
Irrigation and hydropower dams in Cambodia's Cardamom Mountains are clearing forests that are simultaneously being marketed as protected REDD+ carbon projects.
| Hans Nicholas Jong | Mongabay | 2025-02-07
Indonesian forest loss increased in 2024, with most documented clearing occurring within legally authorized concessions rather than through clearly illegal operations.
| Hans Nicholas Jong | Mongabay | 2024-09-19
Land clearing began for a massive government-backed sugarcane development program in Indonesia's Papua region.
| Hans Nicholas Jong | Mongabay | 2024-09-03
Construction associated with Indonesia's new capital is degrading mangrove and coastal forest habitat around Balikpapan Bay.
| Hans Nicholas Jong and Sarjan Lahay | Mongabay | 2024-06-19
A proposed sugar and bioethanol complex in Papua could convert enormous areas of forest, wetland and Indigenous customary territory.
| Hans Nicholas Jong | Mongabay | 2024-02-13
Forest conversion for Indonesian oil palm plantations increased for a second consecutive year after a decade-long decline.
Africa and the Congo Basin
| Mongabay.com | Mongabay | 2026-08-18
Rapid cocoa expansion in Liberia’s Grand Gedeh County is replacing native forest and raising concerns about land rights, traceability and future access to European markets.
| Mongabay.com | Mongabay | 2026-08-12
Satellite evidence shows cacao farms pushing into forest proposed for Kwa National Park, illustrating how agricultural expansion can outrun formal conservation protection.
| Mike DiGirolamo | Mongabay | 2026-07-28
The podcast examines Liberia’s cocoa-driven forest loss and how European deforestation rules could reshape exports and incentives for farmers.
| Ashoka Mukpo | Mongabay | 2026-07-16
Reporting from Liberia’s cocoa frontier shows how new farms, unclear land tenure and weak oversight are rapidly transforming forest landscapes.
| Paolo Cerutti et al. | CIFOR-ICRAF | 2026
The State of Forests report for East and Southern Africa reviews forest-cover trends, governance, livelihoods and the major pressures driving loss across the region.
| CIFOR-ICRAF | CIFOR-ICRAF | 2025-12-04
A new initiative seeks to strengthen civil-society participation in fighting illegal exploitation, weak governance and deforestation in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
| Mino Rakotovao | Mongabay | 2025-09-15
Madagascar's dry forests are being reduced by shifting agriculture, mining, plantations, timber extraction and increasingly destructive fires.
Historical analysis links colonial settlement patterns and later land-use systems with long-term montane forest loss in Kenya's central highlands.
| UNEP | United Nations Environment Programme | 2025-08-08
A Cameroon project shows how higher cacao yields and agroforestry can increase farm income without requiring additional rainforest clearing.
| UNEP | United Nations Environment Programme | 2025-06-18
Large regional conservation programs target intact forest landscapes in both the Congo Basin and the Guinean forests of West Africa.
| Mike DiGirolamo | Mongabay | 2025-05-20
The episode investigates severe forest loss within Congo Basin areas associated with REDD+, raising questions about whether carbon-finance protections are working on the ground.
| Pedro Rodríguez-Veiga et al. | Scientific Reports | 2025
Researchers find that loss of tropical moist broadleaf forest helped shift Africa’s land carbon balance, emphasizing the climate importance of preventing further clearing.
| Marlowe Starling | Mongabay | 2024-10-09
Research associates cacao cultivation in parts of the Congo Basin with substantially elevated rates of forest clearing.
| Temesgen Alemayehu Abera et al. | Nature Communications | 2024-08-14
Loss of African montane forests has increased local temperatures and raised cloud-base elevations, potentially threatening water supplies and endemic biodiversity.
| Malavika Vyawahare | Mongabay | 2024-06-11
High-resolution mapping across Africa identifies small-scale agriculture as a leading cause of forest conversion while also locating areas affected by cacao, oil palm, rubber and coffee.
| Scientific Reports | Scientific Reports | 2024
Satellite-based research maps the diverse land uses that follow deforestation in Africa, improving understanding of what activities replace forests after clearing.
| UNEP | United Nations Environment Programme | 2022
Artisanal gold mining in Congo creates risks from mercury pollution as well as forest clearing and settlement expansion in the Congo Basin.
| Carole Megevand et al. | World Bank | 2013
This major assessment examines how agriculture, roads, logging, mining, energy demand and economic development could reshape Congo Basin forests.
Conservation, Supply Chains and Forest Protection
| Hannah Ritchie | Our World in Data | 2026-08-03
Global spatial data show that the causes of tree-cover loss differ sharply by region and distinguish permanent commodity conversion from fires, forestry and shifting cultivation.
A global driver dataset separates permanent deforestation from temporary tree-cover loss and shows how agriculture, logging, fire and other forces vary by region.
| Fernando Bellese and Kateri Ciccaglione | World Wildlife Fund | 2026-03-17
Leather supply chains remain connected to cattle ranching in high-deforestation regions, making livestock traceability important for eliminating forest conversion.
| Georgina Gustin | Inside Climate News | 2026-02-25
Agricultural expansion, especially livestock production, is consuming natural ecosystems beyond forests and illustrates the broader land-conversion pressures tied to deforestation.
| Forest Trends | Forest Trends | 2025-10-15
An annual assessment finds global deforestation far above the pathway needed to meet the 2030 halt-deforestation pledge, with agriculture the dominant permanent driver.
| Alessandro Saccoccio | Greenpeace International | 2025-09-20
The article traces Amazon burning and forest conversion through cattle and agricultural supply chains and asks which companies profit from continued destruction.
| Forest Trends | Forest Trends | 2025-05-06
A report estimates China’s imported agricultural and timber commodities carry a significant tropical-deforestation footprint, especially through soy, beef, palm oil and wood products.
| Chris West et al. | Nature Reviews Earth & Environment / Forest Trends | 2025
A review compares methods for assigning deforestation footprints to agricultural and forestry commodities, producers, trade flows and consumers.
| Hannah Ritchie | Our World in Data | 2025
Long-run estimates show humanity has removed roughly one-third of the world’s forests, with most historical losses tied to agricultural expansion.
| WWF | World Wildlife Fund | 2025
Cross-border wildlife corridors are becoming increasingly important as agriculture and forest clearing fragment Amazon habitats.
| Greenpeace International | Greenpeace International | 2025
The Amazon's climate regulation, biodiversity, freshwater, Indigenous territories and potential ecological tipping points are summarized as reasons for stronger forest protection.
| Hannah Ritchie | Our World in Data | 2024-05
Commodity agriculture—especially cattle pasture, oil palm and soy—is placed in context alongside logging, shifting agriculture, fire and urban expansion.
| Chris Greenberg | Greenpeace International | 2022-08-26
Greenpeace explains how cattle ranching, land grabbing, agriculture, roads, mining and deliberate fires contribute to Amazon forest loss.
| Max Roser | Our World in Data | 2022-04-20
A long historical view explains how agricultural land expansion drove forest loss and how rising productivity can allow forest area to stabilize or recover.
| WWF | World Wildlife Fund | n.d.
WWF provides an overview of agriculture, infrastructure, logging, mining, fire and climate change as interconnected causes of forest loss and degradation.
| WWF | World Wildlife Fund | n.d.
The Amazon overview examines cattle ranching, soy farming, roads, hydropower, mining and illegal logging as major pressures on the world's largest rainforest.
| WWF | World Wildlife Fund | n.d.
Conservation programs in Ecuador seek to maintain forest connectivity while extractive industries and agricultural expansion increase pressure on Amazon ecosystems.
| WWF | World Wildlife Fund | n.d.
Long-term financing of protected areas is presented as one strategy for resisting mining, logging, agricultural expansion and infrastructure-driven forest loss in Peru.
| WWF | World Wildlife Fund | n.d.
Forest clearing changes human-wildlife interactions and mosquito habitat, creating links between deforestation and the transmission of several infectious diseases.
Logging, Palm Oil and Corporate Commitments
| Valentin Engobo Mufia | Greenpeace International | 2026-08-13
A community perspective from the Democratic Republic of Congo describes the importance of Indigenous stewardship in protecting carbon-rich Congo Basin forests.
| Greenpeace International | Greenpeace International | 2025
Greenpeace calls for an international forest action plan addressing industrial agriculture, logging, mining and corporate supply chains.
| Amazon Watch and partners | Amazon Watch | 2025
This regional assessment documents forest loss, degradation, fire, agricultural expansion and extractive industries across the wider Amazon rather than Brazil alone.
| Forest Declaration Assessment | Forest Declaration Assessment | 2025
The annual assessment measures global progress toward the 2030 goal of halting deforestation and finds most tropical regions remain far off the required trajectory.
| Greenpeace International | Greenpeace International | 2022
The article explains how many Amazon fires are deliberately set after vegetation is cut to convert forest into pasture or agricultural land.
| Kiki Taufik | Greenpeace International | 2018-09-19
The investigation examines continued palm-oil-linked forest clearing despite corporate promises to eliminate deforestation from global consumer-product supply chains.
| Grant Rosoman | Greenpeace International | 2018-05-21
An investigation questioned whether companies linked with Asia Pulp & Paper continued forest and peatland clearing despite earlier zero-deforestation commitments.
| Irene Wabiwa | Greenpeace International | 2015-07-16
Illegal logging can accelerate forest degradation while reducing public revenues, encouraging corruption and creating land and livelihood conflicts.
| Janet Cotter | Greenpeace International | 2015-01-09
Research on forest-atmosphere interactions shows that tropical deforestation can reduce rainfall and raise temperatures, potentially damaging agricultural production itself.
| Danielle Van Oijen | Greenpeace International | 2013-07-25
Greenpeace discusses logging, agricultural expansion and forest fragmentation in the Democratic Republic of Congo and argues that degradation can precede more extensive clearing.
Governance, Finance and Forest Management
| Carolyn Cowan | Mongabay | 2026-08-04
A regional study estimates enormous conservation potential in concession forests but concludes that carbon finance must be combined with regulatory reform and other funding.
| Reuters | Reuters | 2026-07-13
The EU adjusted the product scope of its deforestation law, showing how implementation details can alter which commodity supply chains face traceability requirements.
| Hans Nicholas Jong | Mongabay | 2026-06-18
APRIL’s revised sourcing policy allows suppliers with substantial recent forest-loss histories, prompting criticism that corporate zero-deforestation safeguards are being weakened.
| Carbon Brief | Carbon Brief | 2026-05-06
Carbon Brief’s land-use roundup covers falling tropical forest loss alongside debates over deforestation regulation, conservation policy and commodity pressures.
| Reuters | Reuters | 2026-04-14
This analysis argues that Europe’s deforestation regulation is already influencing corporate behavior and that delay or dilution could weaken emerging supply-chain reforms.
| Global Forest Watch | Global Forest Watch | 2026-02
Forest loss in the Congo Basin has remained persistent rather than declining substantially, with the Democratic Republic of Congo accounting for most regional primary-forest loss.
| Global Forest Watch | Global Forest Watch | 2026
New remote-sensing tools increasingly allow forest disturbance to be compared with concessions, protected areas and other land allocations to improve accountability.
| Steve Curwood; Jenni Doering | Inside Climate News | 2025-11-22
The Tropical Forests Forever Facility proposes paying countries and forest communities for keeping tropical forests standing rather than clearing them.
| Sarah Carter, Nancy Harris, Crystal Davis and Jan Hooijmans | Global Forest Watch | 2025-10-21
The article explains why FAO national forest statistics and satellite-based Global Forest Watch measurements can produce apparently different pictures of forest change.
| Katie Surma | Inside Climate News | 2025-09-11
Research links stronger Indigenous land rights with lower forest loss and public-health benefits, highlighting tenure security as a conservation tool.
| Kerstin Canby; Marigold Walkins | Forest Trends | 2025-05-29
The authors argue that EU country-risk benchmarking can miss governance, legality and circumvention risks that matter for keeping forest-risk products out of supply chains.
| Forest Policy, Trade, and Finance Initiative | Forest Trends | 2025-04-30
The underlying study quantifies China’s exposure to tropical forest loss and emissions through imported agricultural and timber supply chains.
| UNEP | United Nations Environment Programme | 2025
Projects in Cameroon, the Congo Basin and Madagascar illustrate efforts to link poverty reduction and local livelihoods with reduced deforestation.
| Ani Dasgupta | World Resources Institute | 2024-12-18
WRI describes forest protection as a central opportunity for addressing climate change and biodiversity loss together, alongside restoration and improved land governance.
| CIFOR-ICRAF | CIFOR-ICRAF | 2024-10-08
African researchers and environmental institutions are developing shared data systems for tracking deforestation, degradation and biodiversity change.
| CIFOR-ICRAF | CIFOR-ICRAF | 2024-06
Researchers examine how agriculture, infrastructure, logging, mining and climate change threaten Central African forests and the communities that depend on them.
| Isabela Barriga | Global Forest Watch | 2023-11-28
Community forest monitors in Peru use satellite alerts to investigate illegal clearing and provide evidence to environmental authorities.
| UNEP | United Nations Environment Programme | 2021
UNEP reviews REDD+, conservation finance and international programs designed to make keeping forests standing economically competitive with clearing them.
| Liz Goldman and Mikaela Weisse | Global Forest Watch | 2019-04-25
Satellite data showed millions of hectares of tropical primary forest disappearing in 2018 despite expanding corporate and government commitments to end deforestation.
| World Bank | World Bank | 2013
A detailed Congo Basin study examines how roads and large-scale mining can indirectly accelerate agriculture, settlement, fuelwood use and forest degradation.
Additional Research and Regional Case Studies
| Yidi Xu et al. | Nature | 2026-01-07
Small persistent clearings account for a disproportionate share of tropical humid-forest carbon loss because the land remains permanently converted rather than recovering.
| Sonam Lama Hyolmo | Mongabay | 2025-12-15
A report finds Malaysian-linked companies control most Papua New Guinea forest-clearing permits, covering large areas of still-undisturbed rainforest.
| Mongabay.com | Mongabay | 2025-10-27
More than half of recorded tree-cover loss in Cambodia and Laos occurred within formally protected areas in 2024.
| Alexandre Antonelli et al. | Nature | 2025-04-22
Researchers warn that shifts in international soybean trade caused by tariffs could increase pressure to expand cultivation in the Amazon and Cerrado.
| Mongabay.com | Mongabay | 2025-03-27
Newly approved dams and roads are expected to clear thousands of hectares of Cambodian forest that also form part of carbon-credit projects.
| Nature Research Highlight | Nature | 2025-02-21
Satellite imagery identified illegal clearing hotspots in Brazil's Atlantic Forest, one of the world's most threatened biodiversity-rich forest systems.
| Anton L. Delgado | Mongabay | 2025-01-22
Biological surveys found exceptional wildlife diversity in Cambodia's Samlout landscape while documenting continuing forest loss and signs of human intrusion.
| Amazon Watch and partners | Amazon Watch | 2025
The executive summary identifies cattle ranching as the largest direct agricultural driver of Amazon forest loss while also emphasizing crops, mining, fire, land speculation and disrupted moisture recycling.
| Brooke A. Williams et al. | Nature | 2024-10-30
Researchers map where natural forest regeneration is most likely to succeed across previously deforested tropical landscapes.
NASA visualization uses the Landsat record to show decades of industrial-scale ranching and agricultural expansion along the Amazon deforestation frontier.
