Summary for policymakers: Forest Declaration Assessment 2025

The Forest Declaration Assessment 2025 reports that global forests remain in crisis, with deforestation and degradation rates failing to decline significantly by the halfway point of the decade. The document highlights a systemic failure in corporate commitments, a drastic misalignment of public and private finance, and persistent governance barriers, while noting that inclusive, participatory approaches and specific national reforms offer potential pathways to recovery.

• Global forest loss remains severe, with 8.1 million hectares permanently lost in 2024. Primary tropical forests were particularly affected, losing 6.73 million hectares and releasing 3.1 billion metric tons of greenhouse gases. Deforestation is primarily driven by permanent agriculture, which has accounted for approximately 86 percent of global deforestation over the last ten years.
• Forest degradation is escalating rapidly and is often overlooked in national monitoring. In 2024, 8.8 million hectares of tropical moist forests were degraded, a figure more than double the annual level required to halt degradation by 2030. The Amazon Basin suffered significantly from fire-induced degradation.
• Restoration efforts are currently insufficient to meet global targets. Active restoration covers an estimated 10.6 million hectares, representing only 0.3 percent of the global biophysical forest restoration potential and falling short of the 30 percent target of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework. However, natural regeneration of tropical moist forests expanded by over 11 million hectares between 2015 and 2021.
• Corporate action on deforestation is largely inadequate. Only 3 percent of the Forest 500 companies meet expectations for strong deforestation commitments, and 63 percent show shortcomings in implementation or ambition. On average, these companies fulfilled only 16.2 percent of the criteria for implementing and reporting on zero deforestation commitments in 2024.
• Public and private finance flows are heavily misaligned with forest goals. International public finance for forests reached USD 5.7 billion in 2022-24, but this is only 1.4 percent of the USD 409 billion spent annually on environmentally harmful agricultural subsidies. Private finance for the AFOLU sector was USD 5.6 billion in 2023, roughly 0.3 percent of total private climate mitigation finance.
• Forest governance is undermined by power imbalances and illegal activities. Between 61 and 94 percent of tropical deforestation for agriculture is estimated to be illegal, with environmental crimes generating up to USD 281 billion annually. While protected areas now cover 17.5 percent of global land, only 4 percent is managed by Indigenous Peoples and local communities.

APA

Forest Declaration Assessment (2025). Summary for policymakers: Forest Declaration Assessment 2025. https://forestdeclaration.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/2025SummaryforPolicymakers.pdf

Chicago

Forest Declaration Assessment. Summary for policymakers: Forest Declaration Assessment 2025. 2025. https://forestdeclaration.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/2025SummaryforPolicymakers.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Forest Declaration Assessment |title=Summary for policymakers: Forest Declaration Assessment 2025 |date=October 2025 |url=https://forestdeclaration.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/2025SummaryforPolicymakers.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{forestdeclarationassessment2025summary, author = {{Forest Declaration Assessment}}, title = {{Summary for policymakers: Forest Declaration Assessment 2025}}, institution = {Forest Declaration Assessment}, year = {2025}, month = oct, url = {https://forestdeclaration.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/2025SummaryforPolicymakers.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }