Global goal of zero deforestation by 2030 is severely off track

Global deforestation hasn’t slowed in any significant way in the four years since 127 countries pledged to halt and reverse forest loss and degradation by 2030. The newly published 2025 Forest Declaration Assessment shows that nations are 63% off track from meeting their zero-deforestation target. To be on track for that goal, deforestation was supposed to drop by 10% every year, capping out at 5 million hectares (12.4 million acres) worldwide in 2024. However, roughly 8.1 million hectares (20 million acres) were cleared globally that year, a negligible change from the 2018–2020 baseline of 8.3 million hectares (20.5 million acres), the report found. “Every year, the gap between commitments and reality grows wider,” Erin Matson, the assessment’s lead author and a consultant for Netherlands