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Global tree-cover loss, 2001–2024
Each bar is one calendar year. Redder = more global hectares lost (Hansen/UMD, summed across countries).
Which countries are clearing fastest?
Bubble size = acceleration vs five-year average. Color = dominant biome. Y axis = % forest cover remaining (countries without data are excluded).
Top 10 countries by latest-year loss
What is driving tree-cover loss?
Global shares of where tree cover is lost (Curtis et al. 2018 / WRI synthesis — not an annual time series).
Named drivers: cattle pasture and soy expansion in the Amazon; palm oil plantations in Southeast Asia; boreal megafires and logging in Canada and Russia. Country of cutting is not country of blame.
Are forest commitments bending the curve?
Global annual tree-cover loss with major policy milestones — loss can still rise after pledges.
What drives this
- Animal agriculture →Pasture and feed crops are major land-use pressure points.
- Wildfire →Boreal and tropical fire years can dominate annual tree-cover loss.
- Drought stress →Dry seasons amplify fire risk and forest degradation.
What this drives
- Tipping risk →Amazon forest loss weakens rainfall recycling and resilience.
- Climate heating →Lost forests release carbon and reduce future carbon uptake.
Forest loss near you
Looking up your country…
Tree-cover loss hotspots
Country leaderboard
Latest Hansen/UMD tree-cover loss vs each country’s five-year average. FAO net forest change is a separate stock measure — replanting can show growth while loss stays high.
| Country | Loss (ha) | 5-yr avg (ha) | vs 5-yr avg | FAO net change (ha/yr) |
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How we know this
- Source: Hansen/UMD Global Forest Change annual tree-cover loss per country, downloaded via Our World in Data CSV (30 m Landsat).
- Update cadence: We refresh the download daily; UMD publishes a new year once annually (around April–May), so numbers only move on that release.
- Not live alerts: GLAD-L / RADD daily alert maps need an authenticated Global Forest Watch API key — not wired here.
- Drivers bar: Curtis et al. 2018 global driver shares (WRI synthesis) — illustrative shares, not year-by-year attribution on this page.
- Scatter Y axis: Approximate % forest cover remaining (country estimates + biome defaults) — for pattern reading, not property boundaries.
- Session counter: Football-field metaphor uses ~1 ha per pitch from the latest-year global daily average — not a live sensor count.
- Primary data: OWID tree-cover loss · How this page is built