Six measures of forest across 168 countries, from 1990 to 2025. Switch between the stock of forest and the several different ways of measuring its loss.
Source: FAO Global Forest Resources Assessment and Global Forest Watch, via Our World in Data. Tree cover loss is satellite-observed and reported annually from 2001; it counts all canopy loss including commercial harvest and fire, much of which regrows. Deforestation is the permanent conversion of forest to another land use, reported by countries to the FAO only in five-year assessment periods, which is why its year buttons are limited. The two measure different things and tree cover loss is always the larger.
This is the dataset where terminology does the most damage, so it is worth being precise.
Deforestation is the permanent conversion of forest to another land use — cropland, pasture, settlement. It is what most people mean when they use the word.
Net change in forest area is deforestation minus afforestation. A country can be planting faster than it clears, showing net gain while deforestation continues. Indonesia is a live example: net forest area increased in the most recent reporting, while deforestation continued at over 100,000 hectares a year.
Tree cover loss is satellite-observed and counts every loss of tree canopy, including commercial harvest, fire, and storm damage — much of which regrows. It is consistently larger than deforestation and measures something genuinely different.
Deforestation rate expresses loss as a share of remaining forest. A country with little forest left can have a small absolute loss and an alarming rate.
A headline citing one of these while implying another is the single commonest error in forest reporting.
Net gain does not mean no deforestation. Compare the net change and deforestation maps for the same country. Plantation forestry and natural forest are counted together in the FAO figures, which means monoculture planting can offset primary forest loss in the statistics while replacing very little of its ecological function.
FAO data is country-reported. Countries submit their own figures to the Global Forest Resources Assessment. Definitions of forest vary, and reporting capacity varies more.
Satellite data is independent but measures canopy, not forest. Global Forest Watch sees what is there from above. It cannot distinguish a clear-cut plantation from a cleared rainforest.
Deforestation figures come in five-year blocks. The FAO assessment reports averages over assessment periods, so those maps show period values rather than single years. The hover panel shows the reference year where it differs from the one selected.
Land-system change is one of the nine planetary boundaries, and forest cover is its control variable. Global forest cover stands at 59% of its pre-industrial extent, against a boundary of 75%.
Related work of mine:
Data from the FAO Global Forest Resources Assessment and Global Forest Watch, via Our World in Data.