Experts sound ‘global red alert’ as fires trigger record-high forest loss
"This level of forest loss is unlike anything we've seen in over 20 years of data."
Global forest loss reached unprecedented levels in 2024, releasing four times more emissions than all air travel in 2023 – with fires overtaking agriculture as the leading cause for the first time.
According to new data from the University of Maryland’s GLAD Lab, made available on World Resources Institute’s (WRI) Global Forest Watch platform, the world lost 6.7 million hectares of tropical primary forests in 2024 – an area equivalent to the size of Panama.
