The world lost less tropical forest last year than in 2022, but trees continue to fall at rates that put global climate goals in jeopardy.
Efforts to slow forest clearing in countries such as Brazil and Colombia were offset by sharp increases in forest cutting and burning in places like Bolivia, Laos and Nicaragua.
Researchers at the World Resources Institute and the University of Maryland’s Global Land Analysis and Discovery lab analyzed satellite data to determine changes in global tree cover from one year to the next. They found that in 2023 the tropics lost 3.7 million hectares of forest — or about 10 soccer fields of forest every minute. That resulted in 2.4 gigatons of carbon emissions — almost half of the climate pollution released by the United States last year.
Although tropical forest losses were down 9 percent from 2022, the declines are consistent with dangerous rates of long-term losses, the data shows. The world has lost between 3 million and 4 million hectares of tropical forest every year over the past two decades.
