Despite commitments from 140 governments, forest destruction continues at an alarming rate. In 2023 alone, 6.37 million hectares of forests were lost, an area the size of nine million soccer fields.
Much of this destruction was caused by a global demand for palm oil, soy, beef and timber, driving deforestation in the Amazon, southeast Asia and Africa.
A new report warned that governments must take immediate steps to protect forests if they want to meet their 2030 goal of halting deforestation.
The 2030 Global Forest Vision: Priority Actions for Governments in 2025 was released on March 19, 2025 by the Forest Declaration Assessment ahead of World Forest Day. It was supported by the United Nations Development Programme, Climate Land Use Alliance and other partners.
It provides a roadmap for how governments can reverse forest loss, strengthen biodiversity protection and align trade policies with environmental goals. The report comes ahead of the 30th Conference of Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP30) to be held in Brazil in November and provides solutions that the government can take by COP30 to ensure they are on track to protect and restore forests by 2030.
One of its key recommendations is for countries to strengthen trade agreements and regulations to stop deforestation-linked products from entering global markets.
The report emphasised that without proper trade policies, efforts to protect forests will fail and biodiversity loss will continue.
While some economies are taking steps to ban deforestation-linked products, many loopholes remain.
Forests in Amazon, southeast Asia and Africa are being cleared to produce goods like palm oil, soy, beef and timber, all essential for global supply chains. But this comes at a huge cost to biodiversity.
In Amazon, cattle ranching is the largest cause of deforestation, responsible for about 80 per cent of deforestation across all Amazon countries.
These practices destroy habitats for jaguars, giant river otters and rare tree species. Between 2017 and 2022, more than 800 million trees were cut down in the Amazon to meet the global demand for Brazilian beef.
The demand for palm oil in Indonesia and Malaysia is pushing orangutans and Sumatran tigers close to extinction. Deforestation associated with the palm oil sector in Indonesia increased slightly in 2022 after nearly a decade of decline.
In February 2025, Indonesia’s palm oil exports hit a four-month high of 2.06 million tonnes, a 62.2 per cent increase from the previous month, driven by a reduction in export taxes.
Palm oil, globally, has contributed to an estimated 5 per cent of tropical deforestation, according to FAO.
This expansion is wiping out unique ecosystems like the Cerrado savanna in South America, home to species found nowhere else.
Experts warned that if governments do not act quickly, biodiversity loss will accelerate, making it harder to meet global climate and nature goals.
Some governments are taking action. In 2026, the European Union passed the Deforestation Regulation, which will ban imports of products linked to deforestation. This means companies exporting soy, palm oil, beef and timber to the EU must prove their products do not come from cleared forests.
According to the report, the United States is also strengthening its rules, with legislation aimed at stopping illegal logging and deforestation-linked imports. China and India, however, have not yet introduced similar regulations, despite being among the largest consumers of forest risk commodities.
While these policies sound promising, enforcement remains a challenge. Small farmers in producing countries, for instance, worry they will be excluded from global markets because they lack the technology to prove their products are deforestation-free.
Governments in Brazil, Indonesia and Africa argue that such regulations could hurt their economies, as agriculture is their major source of income.
Loopholes in trade agreements allow companies to shift deforestation-linked products to regions with weaker regulations.
“If major economies don’t adopt strict trade policies, deforestation will simply shift to other markets,” warned Tomasz Sawicki, head of land at CDP, a global non-profit.
The 2030 Global Forest Vision report called for stronger international cooperation to ensure deforestation free tarde benefits both biodiversity and local economies.
The report also suggested expanding deforestation-free trade laws to China, India and other major economies. It also advocated for providing financial and technical support to farmers in producing countries and strengthening global monitoring systems to track deforestation-linked products.