Global forest loss fell 15% in 2025, but report warns Brazil's runoff could reverse progress

The world lost 7 million hectares of forest in 2025, an area roughly the size of Ireland and 15% less than in 2024, marking the biggest decline this decade, according to an annual assessment of global forest pledges co-written by the consultancy Climate Focus.

It is the first meaningful slowdown since 145 countries pledged at the 2021 climate summit in Glasgow, Scotland, to end deforestation by 2030. But the researchers said the world remains 70% off track and warned that the gains are "highly vulnerable" to political shifts across the Amazon basin.

The drop was driven mainly by slower expansion of farming and cattle ranching in the Brazilian Amazon under President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva's deforestation action plan and tougher enforcement. Neighboring Colombia posted a fourth straight year of decline.

Brazilians vote Oct. 25 in a runoff between Lula and Flávio Bolsonaro, son of former President Jair Bolsonaro, who led the first round 47% to 45%. Flávio Bolsonaro told TV Globo in August he did not believe in climate change. In Colombia, newly elected President Abelardo de la Espriella has repealed mining restrictions.

Deforestation in tropical Africa, home to the Congo Basin, rose to 2.4 million hectares, nearly matching the 2.5 million hectares lost in tropical Latin America and the Caribbean.

Last year's figures "look good in part because previous years look so bad," said Erin Matson, a lead consultant at Climate Focus and one of the report's authors.

This brief is based on an article published Oct. 14, 2026, by Matteo Civillini in Climate Home News. Read the original: https://www.climatechangenews.com/2026/10/14/global-deforestation-slowed-in-2025-but-brazils-election-could-undo-fragile-gains/