World Resources Institute: Tropical Rainforest Loss Slowed in 2025, but Fire is a Growing Threat to Forests Worldwide – The Forest Pulse draws on the most recent data and analysis to reveal the latest trends in global forest loss and deforestation. This page is updated annually using annual tree cover loss data. Updates are released each year and cover the previous year’s trends. Data created and updated by Peter Potapov (WRI) and Svetlana Turubanova and Sasha Tyukavina (University of Maryland’s GLAD lab). Primary forest loss in the tropics eased in 2025, following record-shattering losses in 2024 driven by extreme fires. New data from the University of Maryland’s GLAD lab, available on WRI’s Global Forest Watch and Global Nature Watch, shows that loss of tropical primary rainforests fell by 36% compared to 2024. While the reduction is encouraging, the world still lost 4.3 million hectares of tropical primary forest in 2025, equivalent to more than 11 football (soccer) fields of forest per minute. Tropical primary forest loss is still 46% higher than a decade ago. This continued forest loss undercuts the many services tropical primary forests provide. These ecosystems are critical for biodiversity, water provision, carbon storage, food and medicines, cultural identity and more. Why do we focus on tropical primary forests? Though the tree cover loss data from the University of Maryland has global coverage, Global Forest Watch primarily focuses on loss in the tropics because that is where 94% of deforestation, or human-caused, long-term removal of forest, occurs. This piece largely focuses on primary forests in the humid tropics, which are areas of mature rainforest that are especially important for biodiversity, carbon storage and regulating regional and local climate.  Much of the reduction in 2025 came from sharp declines in Brazil, which experienced a 42% reduction in primary forest loss. However, Brazil still ranked as the country with the largest area of tropical rainforest loss, given the sheer size of its forests. Several other major forested countries, including Colombia, Indonesia and Malaysia, also saw relatively low or stable rates of forest loss in 2025 compared to recent years. Tropical primary forest loss remained high in countries such as Bolivia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo…”