3.7 million hectares

Deforestation in the tropical rainforest decreased

Forests in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Bolivia and Indonesia suffered particularly severe losses.(Bild: KrumpyOne - stock.adobe.com)

Around 3.7 million hectares (37,000 square kilometers) of tropical rainforest were destroyed worldwide last year. Converted to 2023, trees the size of ten soccer pitches disappeared every minute.

Nevertheless, this is around 400,000 hectares less than in 2022, according to the World Resources Institute (WRI) in Washington. 

"The world has taken two steps forward and two steps back when it comes to last year's forest losses," said Mikaela Weisse from the environmental organization Global Forest Watch, according to a statement. 3.7 million hectares in 2023 - the figure is almost identical to the forest loss in 2019 and 2021. Over the past two decades, the world has lost three to four million hectares of tropical forest every year.

Sharp declines in the Brazilian Amazon and Colombia show that progress is possible.

Umweltorganisation Global Forest Watch

Colombia has halved forest loss
Although the loss in Brazil decreased significantly in 2023, it is still the country with the greatest forest loss, according to the report. Colombia has almost halved its forest loss compared to the previous year.

Forests lost in the Congo, Bolivia and Indonesia
"Sharp declines in the Brazilian Amazon region and in Colombia show that progress is possible," says Weisse. "But increasing forest loss in other areas has largely reversed this progress." Forests in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Bolivia and Indonesia have seen particularly severe deforestation.

In terms of global development - i.e. also beyond the tropics - Canada is surprisingly prominent. Forest loss there was three times as high as in other recorded years. The reason: five times more trees were destroyed by fire in 2023 than in the previous year.