Global Woods: Progress Amid Perils
The planet’s forests may finally be breathing a little easier. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has reported a significant slowdown in global deforestation. Yet, the warning is clear: the world continues to lose 10.9 million hectares of forest each year, a rate too high to sustain the delicate balance of biodiversity, carbon, and climate.
Rome/Bali: In a development that offers cautious optimism for environmental stewardship, the pace of deforestation has decelerated across every major region of the world over the past ten years, as detailed in the latest edition of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization’s comprehensive survey of planetary woodlands. This assessment, known as the Global Forest Resources Assessment 2025, or FRA 2025, emerges as a quinquennial benchmark that scrutinises the state of forests in 236 countries and territories, providing a granular view of their extent, health, and utilisation. The report’s unveiling coincided with the Global Forest Observations Initiative Plenary, held in Bali, Indonesia, on October 21, 2025. Its origins are tied to FAO’s headquarters in Rome, underscoring the international collaboration that underpins such evaluations.
Forests currently span approximately 4.14 billion hectares, constituting roughly 32 per cent of the Earth’s terrestrial surface—an area that equates to about half a hectare for each person on the planet. Nearly half of these woodlands are concentrated in tropical zones, where ecological pressures are often most acute. Beyond the headline slowdown in tree loss, the assessment reveals encouraging trends: more than half of all forests, totalling 2.13 billion hectares or 55 per cent of the global expanse, now fall under structured long-term management strategies, marking an expansion of 365 million hectares since 1990. Similarly, one-fifth of forests, amounting to 813 million hectares, reside within formally designated protected zones, reflecting a substantial growth of 251 million hectares over the same period.
Yet this progress is tempered by persistent vulnerabilities. The annual deforestation rate, while reduced, still stands at 10.9 million hectares—equivalent to vast swaths of land vanishing each year, a figure deemed excessively elevated by experts. This ongoing erosion poses a threat to the multifaceted roles that forests play in both human and ecological systems. They underpin food security by supporting agricultural systems and wild harvests, sustain local economies through livelihoods tied to timber and non-timber products, and supply renewable materials for construction, energy, and manufacturing. As habitats, they shelter a significant share of global biodiversity, while their influence on planetary processes is profound: forests modulate carbon sequestration and water cycles, mitigating climate fluctuations, and they serve as natural barriers against environmental hazards such as droughts, desertification, soil degradation, landslides, and inundations.
FAO Director-General QU Dongyu, in his introductory remarks to the report, emphasised the assessment’s role as the most exhaustive and open examination of forest assets, encompassing their status, stewardship, and applications across all facets of sustainable practices. He noted that the insights generated not only inform the international community about evolving forest dynamics but also guide policy formulation, investment priorities, and strategies to harness the ecosystem benefits forests deliver.
Delving into specifics, the net annual forest loss has diminished markedly, dropping from 10.7 million hectares in the 1990s to 4.12 million hectares between 2015 and 2025. This improvement stems partly from a slowdown in outright deforestation—from 17.6 million hectares yearly in the 1990-2000 interval to the current 10.9 million—though forest regrowth and expansion have also tapered off, declining from 9.88 million hectares annually in 2000-2015 to 6.78 million in the latest decade. Naturally regenerating forests, which dominate at 92 per cent of the total or 3.83 billion hectares, have contracted by 324 million hectares since 1990, but the pace of this shrinkage has eased considerably. Recent years have seen the steepest reductions in Africa and South America, contrasted by gains in Europe.
Primary forests, those minimally disturbed by human activity, encompass at least 1.18 billion hectares—about a third of all reported woodlands—and while they continue to recede, the rate of disappearance has halved since the early 2000s. On the other hand, planted forests, comprising around 8 per cent of the total at 312 million hectares, have proliferated in every region since 1990, albeit at a moderated clip in the most recent ten years. In terms of biological metrics, the global forest biomass inventory is pegged at 630 billion cubic meters, with carbon reserves having risen to 714 gigatonnes, signalling a bolstering of these vital sinks.
Disturbances remain a formidable concern: wildfires scorch an average of 261 million hectares of land each year, with nearly half of that impacting forests directly. In 2020 alone, pests, pathogens, and extreme weather inflicted damage on roughly 41 million hectares, predominantly in cooler temperate and boreal latitudes. Ownership patterns reveal that 71 per cent of forests are held publicly, 24 per cent privately, with the balance under alternative or unclear arrangements. Management priorities vary: 1.20 billion hectares, or 29 per cent, are geared chiefly toward productive outputs like timber, while 616 million hectares support multifaceted uses. Beyond that, 482 million hectares prioritise biodiversity preservation, 386 million focus on safeguarding soils and waterways, and 221 million emphasise societal benefits such as recreation and cultural value.
Enhancing its utility, this iteration of the FRA introduces innovative digital enhancements for broader accessibility. Users can now explore an interactive online repository containing complete datasets and contextual metadata for all 236 jurisdictions. Complementing this is an application programming interface that facilitates seamless, automated retrieval and incorporation of information into other systems. Additionally, individual country profiles are offered as downloadable PDF documents in the pertinent official languages.
The report itself stems from a participatory, nation-led endeavour, drawing inputs from officially appointed representatives in 197 countries and territories, augmented by the expertise of over 700 specialists globally. This collaborative framework has been further strengthened through partnerships with allied entities, which streamline data collection and promote uniformity across reporting standards.
– global bihari bureau
