Covering about one-third of the Earth’s land surface, forests are crucial for food security, livelihoods and for renewable biomaterials and energy. They are habitats for a large proportion of the world’s biodiversity, help regulate global carbon and hydrologic cycles, and can reduce the risks and impacts of drought, desertification, soil erosion, landslides and floods. Yet they also face many challenges and demands, and balancing priorities in forest management requires reliable, timely data.
As a knowledge-based organization, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) is mandated to “collect, analyse, interpret and disseminate information relating to nutrition, food and agriculture”. In this regard, FAO has been conducting Global Forest Resources Assessments (FRAs) for nearly 80 years – since the early days of the Organization’s establishment.
FRAs build on data collected and reported by countries. A truly collaborative approach, combined with consolidated data collection, analysis and validation, ensures that the best and most recent knowledge is shared and applied through a standardized set of definitions and methodology. To reduce the reporting burden on countries, to increase synergies among reporting processes, and to improve data consistency, the process also involves collaboration among many partner organizations.
FRAs – produced every five years – are the most comprehensive and transparent global evaluations of the state, management and uses of forest resources, covering all the thematic elements of sustainable forest management. FRA data serve to inform the global community on the status and trend of forests and to support decisions, policies and investments related to forests and the ecosystem services they provide. FRA data are also key for monitoring progress towards achieving sustainable development and climate targets, as well as the Global Forest Goals and the goals set out in the Kunming–Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework and the United Nations Decade on Ecosystem Restoration.
This 2025 edition of FRA contains the most up-to-date data on the world’s forests and how they are changing. For example, it reveals that the world has 4.14 billion hectares (ha) of forest, or 32 percent of total land area. Promisingly, the rate of deforestation is declining, although still high at nearly 10.9 million ha per year in 2015–2025. With the rate of net forest loss of 4.12 million ha per year, we see that much work still needs to be done. The pledges of 91 countries and areas reported to FRA 2025 to restore up to 190 million hectares of degraded forest in the next few decades are a great step in the right direction.
Forests – and their ecosystem services supporting livelihoods, biodiversity, climate regulation, well-being and access to clean air and water – underscore FAO’s vision for the Four Betters: better production, better nutrition, a better environment and a better life, leaving no one behind. Yet, the world is not on track to meet important global forest targets, including halting and reversing forest loss and increasing the forest area worldwide.
The wealth of information in this assessment is essential for understanding whether the world is moving in the right direction and what is still needed from the global community. I urge all partners to make good use of this report as we increase our collective work and efforts towards a more sustainable future with forests.
QU Dongyu
FAO Director-General