Progress on stopping deforestation and restoring forests must dramatically speed up in order to meet the 2030 NYDF goals.

High-resolution imagery from Planet is now available on GFW, making it easier than ever to spot deforestation on the scale of a single tree.

GLAD deforestation alerts update weekly, showing areas of recent lost to forest defenders across the tropics to encourage action.

New data from the University of Maryland (UMD), released on Global Forest Watch, shows that tropical primary forests sustained high losses in 2019. But what does this data show about the causes of loss, and how does it compare to the other estimates of loss out there? Here’s what you need to know about the […]

What is tree cover loss? Tree cover loss is not the same as deforestation. “Tree cover” can refer to trees in plantations as well as natural forests, and “tree cover loss” is the removal of tree canopy due to human or natural causes, including fire. The data presented here do not take tree restoration or […]

Tropical rainforests are one of the world’s most complex ecosystems. These hot and humid forests harbor millions of species—10 percent of the world’s known species can be found in the Amazon alone—which together form a unique structure that rises in stories from the forest floor to the tops of the tallest trees. Each of these […]

Plagued by for many years by wildlife poachers and deforestation, the northern tip of Chiquibul, Belize’s largest national park, became a hot spot of forest loss in 2019. In an age of climate destabilization and the largest mass extinction in 66 million years, primary forests like Chiquibul are strongholds of carbon storage and species habitat […]

Global tree cover loss reached record highs in 2016 and 2017. In 2018, roughly one soccer field of tree cover was lost every second. What drove this loss? Global data on the drivers of tree cover loss, developed by WRI and The Sustainability Consortium and updated this week on Global Forest Watch, can tell us. […]

Scientists have a better understanding of the number of stars and galaxies in the universe than the number of species currently on earth. A little more than 1.7 million species have been described by science and estimates of the total number of species on earth vary wildly between 3 and 100 million. Yet each year this staggering amount of diversity takes a hit.  Research suggests that Earth is currently experiencing its sixth mass extinction. (The last extinction took out the dinosaurs 66 million […]

The last decade was pivotal for the world’s forests. The 2010s saw the rise of unprecedented new commitments — from governments and the private sector alike — to bring deforestation to heel. The UN REDD+ framework, the New York Declaration on Forests and the Sustainable Development Goals set out ambitious targets to conserve and restore millions […]

Indonesia’s forest fires have made headlines globally over the past few weeks. This year’s forest fires have affected millions of people. Schools have closed in some areas due to unsafe levels of air pollution, while many people are suffering from respiratory illnesses. The haze has spread so far as to affect Singapore and Malaysia. While […]

This blog is part of Global Forest Watch’s Global Insights series. Although many parts of the world are experiencing forest loss, the factors motivating these losses differ between countries and regions. Global Insights takes a local look at historical and current trends in forested countries across the world to highlight the diversity of forest issues. […]