Ranked: Countries With the Highest Rates of Forest Loss

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Since 2015, the world has lost an average of 10.9 million hectares (ha) of forest each year.

Deforestation has been most severe in South America and Africa, largely driven by agricultural production. In Brazil, for example, cattle ranching and pasture expansion have played a major role in clearcutting across the Amazon.

This graphic shows the countries with the most forest loss since 2015, based on data from the UN Food and Agriculture Organization.

Brazil Leads Globally in Forest Loss

Here are the top 10 countries by net forest loss over the past decade:

Ranking	Country	Net Loss 2015-2025 (ha)	Average Annual Net Change (%)
1	Brazil	-2,942,000	-0.6
2	Angola	-510,000	-0.8
3	Tanzania	-469,000	-1.0
4	Myanmar	-290,000	-1.0
5	DRC	-283,000	-0.2
6	Mozambique	-267,000	-0.8
7	Cambodia	-251,000	-3.3
8	Peru	-239,000	-0.4
9	Bolivia	-232,000	-0.4
10	Paraguay	-207,000	-1.3

With over 2.9 million ha of forest loss, Brazil accounted for the highest share of deforestation since 2015 by far.

While deforestation rates have slowed, the scale of loss is more than the next nine countries combined. More promisingly, however, Brazil’s president Lula da Silva plans to bring deforestation to zero by 2030. The country is home to 486 million ha of forest, the second-highest in the world.

Angola, located on the Western coast of Africa, ranks next with 510,000 ha lost. Meanwhile, neighboring country, DRC, stands in fifth with 283,000 ha. Slash-and-burn farming occurs frequently across the region for logging and agricultural purposes.

In Asia, Myanmar saw the highest degree of deforestation, known for its abundance of teak. Meanwhile, Cambodia witnessed the fastest rate of loss across the group, averaging 3.3% in net annual change—more than four times greater than Brazil.

Learn More on the Voronoi App

To learn more about this topic, check out this graphic on the loss of tropical forests by country in 2024.