The tropics lost 4.3 million hectares of primary forest in 2025, according to Global Forest Watch. That was 36% less than the record 6.7 million hectares lost in 2024, when fire caused almost half of the loss. It was still 46% more than a decade earlier. Understanding the deforestation causes behind numbers like these requires looking at five main drivers, each tied to specific commodities, regions, and economic pressures.
This article breaks down the major causes of deforestation, where they concentrate geographically, what they mean for the climate and biodiversity, and how regulations and technology are beginning to respond.
Global Deforestation by the Numbers
The Food and Agriculture Organization’s 2025 Global Forest Resources Assessment estimates that 489 million hectares of forest have been lost to deforestation since 1990, an area larger than the European Union. Deforestation slowed from 17.6 million hectares a year in 1990-2000 to 10.9 million hectares a year in 2015-2025. Net loss, which subtracts new forest from the area cleared, fell from 10.7 million to 4.12 million hectares a year over the same periods.
Global Forest Watch, which tracks tree cover loss from satellite data, recorded 25.5 million hectares of total tree cover loss in 2025, down from a record 30 million hectares in 2024. Fire caused 42% of the 2025 total. In the tropics, wildfire overtook farm clearing as the largest cause of primary forest loss for the first time in 2024, after severe drought in Brazil, Bolivia and other parts of Latin America.
Major Causes of Deforestation
Agriculture and Commodity Crop Expansion
Agriculture is the single largest cause of deforestation. The FAO found that farming drove almost 90% of global deforestation between 2000 and 2018: cropland expansion caused almost half, and livestock grazing caused 38.5%. The specific crops vary by region: palm oil in Southeast Asia, soy in South America, cocoa in West Africa, and coffee in Vietnam and Central America. What they share is a pattern where expanding production into forest land is cheaper than intensifying yields on existing farmland.
Small-scale and subsistence farming also drives significant deforestation, particularly in Africa. The distinction between “commercial” and “subsistence” agriculture is blurry in practice: many smallholders grow both food crops and cash crops like cocoa or coffee on cleared forest land.
Cattle Ranching
Cattle ranching is the leading deforestation cause in Latin America, particularly in the Brazilian Amazon and the Cerrado. Pasture expansion, mainly for beef cattle, drove about 42% of commodity-driven deforestation worldwide between 2001 and 2022, according to a 2026 study in Nature Food. Brazil’s cattle herd stood at 238 million head in 2024. Land speculation amplifies the problem: forest is cleared to establish a legal claim, then converted to pasture as the cheapest way to demonstrate “productive use.”
The cattle supply chain’s traceability challenges make it one of the hardest commodities to verify as deforestation-free. Animals move between farms multiple times before slaughter, and indirect supplier networks are often opaque.
Logging (Legal and Illegal)
Commercial logging, both legal and illegal, also drives forest loss. Illegal logging is particularly destructive because it opens roads into previously inaccessible forest, attracting settlers and ranchers who clear the remaining trees. A 2012 report by the UN Environment Programme and INTERPOL estimated that illegal logging accounts for 15-30% of the global timber trade.
Selective logging, where only high-value trees are extracted, is harder to detect from satellites than clear-cutting. But it degrades forest structure, reduces carbon storage, and makes the remaining forest more vulnerable to fire and further clearing.
Mining
Mining drives localized but severe deforestation, particularly illegal gold mining (garimpo) in the Amazon and industrial-scale mining in the Congo Basin and Southeast Asia. Mining’s indirect footprint is often larger than the mine itself: access roads, processing facilities, and worker settlements expand the cleared area.
Fire
Fire has emerged as an increasingly dominant deforestation cause, amplified by climate change. The 2024 fire season was the worst on record for tropical forests, with drought conditions drying out forests that do not normally burn. In the Brazilian Amazon, fires are primarily set intentionally to clear land for agriculture, but in drought years they escape into standing forest. In Indonesia, peat fires during El Nino years can burn for months underground, destroying forest and releasing massive quantities of stored carbon.
Fire-driven deforestation is expected to increase as global temperatures rise, creating a feedback loop: deforestation reduces rainfall, drier conditions increase fire risk, and fire destroys more forest.
Tropical Deforestation Hotspots
South America
Brazil accounts for more tropical primary forest loss than any other country, followed by Bolivia. The Democratic Republic of Congo ranked third in 2025. The Amazon and Cerrado biomes are the primary frontiers. Brazil’s official Amazon deforestation rate fell 56% between 2021 and 2025 under strengthened enforcement. Bolivia’s primary forest loss tripled in 2024 with severe fires, and 2025 was its second-worst year on record.
Central Africa
The Democratic Republic of Congo loses about half a million hectares of primary forest a year, the third-highest national total in 2025 after Brazil and Bolivia. Smallholder agriculture, charcoal production, and logging are the main drivers.
Southeast Asia
Indonesia and Malaysia drove the bulk of Southeast Asian deforestation from 2000 to 2015, primarily for oil palm. Indonesian primary forest loss has declined significantly since 2016, supported by a permanent moratorium on new permits in primary forests and peatlands. However, Indonesia’s primary forest loss rose 14% in 2025, and fire remains a recurring threat during dry years.
Effects on Climate
Net CO2 emissions from land use and land-use change, mostly from deforestation, made up about 11% of global greenhouse gas emissions in 2019, according to the IPCC. When forests are cleared, the carbon stored in trees, roots, and soil is released as CO2. The world’s forests hold an average of 172 tonnes of carbon per hectare, according to the FAO.
Tropical primary forest loss in 2024 released 3.1 gigatonnes of greenhouse gases, according to Global Forest Watch. That is slightly more than India’s annual CO2 emissions from fossil fuels.
Beyond carbon, forests regulate regional rainfall patterns, moderate temperatures, and buffer against extreme weather events.
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Deforestation and Biodiversity
Forests provide habitat for 80% of amphibian species, 75% of bird species and 68% of mammal species, according to the FAO. Clearing them removes that habitat. In 2015, the IUCN identified habitat loss and degradation as the main threat to 85% of all species on its Red List.
Forest fragmentation compounds the damage. Small, isolated forest patches cannot support viable populations of large mammals, migratory birds, or species with limited ranges. Edge effects, where the boundary between forest and cleared land alters temperature, humidity, and light penetration, degrade habitat quality for hundreds of meters into the remaining forest.
What’s Being Done About Deforestation Causes
The EUDR
The EU Deforestation Regulation targets the demand side by prohibiting products linked to deforestation from entering the EU market. It covers seven commodities: palm oil, soy, cocoa, coffee, rubber, cattle, and wood. From December 30, 2026, companies must provide GPS coordinates for the land where the commodities were produced and conclusive, verifiable evidence that their supply is deforestation-free relative to the December 31, 2020 cutoff. The law does not say how to produce the evidence, and satellite analysis is the common way to do it. For companies, the maximum fine must be at least 4% of EU-wide annual turnover.
Satellite Monitoring
Land cover analysis from Sentinel-2, Landsat, and MODIS provides the data backbone for both enforcement and compliance. Automated alert systems like GLAD and DETER detect clearing within days. Platforms like Continuuiti’s LULC+ enable companies to verify land cover status at any coordinate, generating year-by-year timelines with deforestation risk scoring.
International Commitments
Leaders of over 140 countries signed the Glasgow Leaders’ Declaration in 2021, promising to halt and reverse forest loss by 2030. The Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (2022) set a target to conserve at least 30% of land and ocean by 2030 through protected areas and other effective area-based measures. Whether these commitments translate into action depends on enforcement, financing, and political will in producing countries.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the biggest cause of deforestation?
Agriculture is the biggest cause of deforestation, responsible for almost 90% of global deforestation according to the FAO. Commodity crops like palm oil, soy, cocoa, and coffee drive commercial-scale clearing, while subsistence farming contributes significantly in Africa. Pasture expansion, mainly for beef cattle, drove about 42% of commodity-driven deforestation worldwide between 2001 and 2022.
How much forest is lost each year?
The tropics lost 4.3 million hectares of primary forest in 2025, down from a record 6.7 million hectares in 2024, according to Global Forest Watch. Total global tree cover loss was 25.5 million hectares in 2025. The FAO puts deforestation at 10.9 million hectares a year for 2015-2025, and net forest loss at 4.12 million hectares a year, down from 10.7 million in 1990-2000.
How does deforestation affect climate change?
Net CO2 emissions from land use and land-use change, mostly from deforestation, made up about 11% of global greenhouse gas emissions in 2019, according to the IPCC. When forests are cleared, the carbon stored in trees, roots, and soil is released as CO2. Tropical primary forest loss in 2024 released 3.1 gigatonnes of greenhouse gases, according to Global Forest Watch.
Which countries have the most deforestation?
Brazil has the highest absolute tropical primary forest loss, followed by Bolivia. The Democratic Republic of Congo ranked third in 2025. Brazil’s official Amazon deforestation rate fell 56% between 2021 and 2025 under strengthened enforcement, while Bolivia’s primary forest loss tripled in 2024 with fires. Indonesia’s rate declined after 2016, supported by a permanent moratorium on new permits in primary forests and peatlands.
How does deforestation affect biodiversity?
Forests provide habitat for 80% of amphibian species, 75% of bird species and 68% of mammal species, according to the FAO. Clearing them removes that habitat. In 2015, the IUCN identified habitat loss and degradation as the main threat to 85% of all species on its Red List.
What is the EUDR doing about deforestation?
The EU Deforestation Regulation prohibits products linked to post-2020 deforestation from the EU market. It covers seven commodities (palm oil, soy, cocoa, coffee, rubber, cattle, and wood). From December 30, 2026, companies must provide GPS coordinates and conclusive, verifiable evidence that their supply is deforestation-free. Satellite analysis is the common way to check this. For companies, the maximum fine must be at least 4% of EU-wide annual turnover.
The causes of deforestation are well understood: agriculture, ranching, logging, mining, and fire. What has changed is the response. Satellite systems now detect clearing within days, the EUDR attaches trade consequences to deforestation-linked products from December 30, 2026, and the data infrastructure to verify compliance at scale exists. The question is whether these tools will be applied fast enough to keep pace with the economic pressures that continue to drive forest loss.
