Anthropogenic activities caused fragmentation of nearly 80 per cent of tropical forests in the last two decades: Report

Published on : 23 Sep 2025, 7:12 am

Human activities and deforestation have caused 80 per cent of tropical forests to become fragmented in the past two decades, a study has revealed.

The study, published in the journal Science , added that about 51-67 per cent of the forests globally have also become fragmented.

The researchers used fragmentation indices including Connectivity-based Fragmentation Index (CFI), Aggregation-based Fragmentation Index (AFI), and Structure-based Fragmentation Index (SFI) to come to the conclusions.

The assessment noted that fragmentation arises through multiple ways such as shrinking forest patches, splits and vanishing of stretches into complex shapes to distance themselves from each other. Such changes are observed in Amazonian deforestation, which d