Blog Posts: Global Forest Watch (GFW)

The tropics lost 12.2 million hectares of tree cover in 2020. Of that, 4.2 million hectares, an area the size of the Netherlands.

The 2019 data reveals that several countries suffered record tree cover losses, and fires created astonishing impacts in primary forests and beyond.

More than 360 companies committed to eliminate deforestation from their supply chains by 2020. Most are not on track to meet this target, but Global Forest Watch Pro can help.

Indonesia has shown promising results in forest conservation, with temporary bans on expansion of oil palm into forests and peatlands yielding notable reductions in forest loss. Here's how to double down on that success.

This year, for first time ever, we have data on the extent (as of 2001) of tropical humid primary forests, areas of natural, mature forest cover that have not been cleared and regrown in recent history (less than 30-50 years).

Primary or old-growth rainforests store more carbon than other kinds of forests and provide homes for jaguars, orangutans, gorillas and other important species. So the fact that the world lost 3.6 million hectares of these forests in 2018 is a huge problem.

Contrary to the global trend, both the UMD data and the official deforestation data provided by the Ministry of Environment and Forestry (MoEF) show that Indonesia actually experienced a decline in tree cover loss compared to the previous year.

Global Forest Watch has always been able to tell you where tree cover loss has occurred. Now, in a huge leap, it can tell you why.

This is the first of the Places to Watch series on illegal logging in Indonesia.

Forests are critical homes to plant and animal species. The Amazon basin of South America, the Congo basin of Central Africa and the tropical rainforests of Southeast Asia hold the highest density of species per unit area in the world. Forests with unique compositions, such as those on isolated islands, host high numbers of endemic species found nowhere else in the world. But any change to these forested habitats can lead to the extinction of the species that depend on them.