Key results
According to the latest data from the Global Forest Resources Assessment 2020, the proportion of forest area of the world’s land area has gradually decreased from 31.9 percent in 2000 (4.2 billion hectares) to 31.5 percent in 2010, then down to 31.2 percent (4.1 billion ha) in 2020. Forest area losses amounted to almost 100 million hectares in the past two decades, however the rate of loss has slightly slowed down within the past ten years. Most of the losses occur in Sub-Saharan Africa, South-eastern Asia and Latin America and are mainly attributed to the expansion of agricultural activities.
The continued loss of forests threatens a wide range of goods and services that are important for human well-being, such as an increased risk for floods and droughts and access to clean water. It is also a threat to the diversity of forest ecosystems, as most of the loss takes place in tropical forests which host at least two thirds of the terrestrial species. Furthermore, stopping deforestation contributes to reducing of impacts of climate change as forests absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and store it as biomass.