Blog Posts: tree cover loss

Twenty years of data shows us just how must forest the world has lost — as well as the solutions that can help save remaining ecosystems.

Every year World Resources Institute analyses the latest data on how much of the world's tree cover has been lost in the previous calendar year. This year, the figures for 2020 make grim reading. Although there are some bright spots, the overall picture is going in the wrong direction, and there is evidence that a negative feedback loop is emerging between climate change and forest loss.

Tracking tree growth will help us understand whether campaigns like the Trillion Trees Initiative are working and whether efforts to fight climate change are on the right track.

The Trillion Trees initiative and major corporations are looking to invest in tree-planting. TerraMatch connects these investors with trusted local experts who grow trees responsibly and at scale.

Global data on the drivers of tree cover loss, developed by WRI and The Sustainability Consortium and updated this week on Global Forest Watch, shows that agriculture is the main culprit.

While Indonesia is one of few countries actually reducing its deforestation, key provinces are still losing primary forests and peat.

Primary or old-growth rainforests store more carbon than other kinds of forests and provide homes for jaguars, orangutans, gorillas and other important species. So the fact that the world lost 3.6 million hectares of these forests in 2018 is a huge problem.

If tropical deforestation were a country, it would rank third in global emissions behind China and the United States. Tree cover loss is on the rise, but channeling climate mitigation finance towards forests could change the course of the world's climate.

Indonesia must build on recent reductions in tree cover loss and protections for peatlands. To get there, they'll need more international support, innovative schemes such as peatland restoration and continued monitoring.

The tropics lost 15.8 million hectares of tree cover in 2017, an area the size of Bangladesh. That’s the equivalent of losing 40 football fields of trees every minute for an entire year!