18 Football Fields of Tropical Forest Lost Every Minute in 2024: Study

Fires Largely to Blame for Loss of Record 6.7 Million Ha, Nearly Double 2023's Figure

- David Fogarty

Fires triggered unprecedented global forest loss in 2024, driven by a dangerous cocktail of drought linked to climate change, extreme heat and agricultural expansion in the tropics, a study released on May 21 showed.

Global tree cover loss reached 30 million ha in 2024, up 5 per cent from 2023.

But it is across the tropics where the 2024 data is especially worrying, said the authors of a study conducted by the University of Maryland and made available on the World Resources Institute's (WRI) Global Forest Watch platform.

A record 6.7 million ha of tree cover in tropical primary forests was lost—that is about half the size of Peninsular Malaysia and nearly double 2023's loss of 3.7 million ha. That magnitude of loss is equivalent to about 18 football fields disappearing every minute.

More than half of the tropical forest loss in 2024 occurred in fire-scorched Brazil and Bolivia. Tree cover loss also rose across parts of Central Africa.

But there was better news for Indonesia and Malaysia: Tree cover loss fell in both nations.

In Indonesia, late monsoon rains and fire prevention efforts by local communities and agribusinesses helped reduce the risks. In Malaysia, government efforts to cap plantation areas and toughen forest laws, plus corporate commitments to reduce deforestation, are paying off, the authors said.

"The 2024 numbers must be a wake-up call to every country, every bank, every international business. Continuing down this path will devastate economies, people's jobs and any chance of staving off climate change's worst effects," said Ms Elizabeth Goldman, a senior researcher at Global Forest Watch, during a media briefing for the study.

The study uses data from the University of Maryland's Global Land Analysis and Discovery (Glad) laboratory.