How much forest was lost in 2016?

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This is an archive of the Forest Pulse, which is updated annually using annual tree cover loss data to provide a comprehensive overview on where forests have been lost around the world. Annual updates are released each year and cover the previous year’s trends. View the latest analysis here

Global Tree Cover Loss Rose 51 Percent in 2016

By Mikaela Weisse and Elizabeth Goldman

Global tree cover loss reached a record 29.7 million hectares (73.4 million acres) in 2016, according to new data from the University of Maryland released today on Global Forest Watch. The loss is 51 percent higher than the previous year, totaling an area about the size of New Zealand. Forest fires seem to be a primary cause of this year’s spike, including dramatic fire-related degradation in Brazil. Deforestation due to agriculture, logging, and mining continue to drive global tree cover loss from year-to-year. The wide scale of forest disturbance shows the urgent need to improve forest management.

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Forests at a Flash Point

Fire rarely occurs naturally in tropical forests; fires happen when human use of fire interacts with extreme temperatures and drought. This year’s trend is due in part to the global effects of 2015/2016 El Niño, the second-strongest ever recorded, which brought drought conditions throughout the tropics. Human-caused deforestation and degradation also make forests more fire-prone by drying the local climate. El Niño also plays a role in boreal and temperate forests, where fires are a more natural occurrence, but climate change is increasing the intensity  and costs of fires. An increase in forest fires is worrying on many levels. Even in places where fires are an important part of the ecosystem, large blazes can have major impacts on human health and cause wide-spread damage to property and infrastructure. Forest burning can release huge amounts of carbon into the atmosphere, and, in tropical forests where such fires are rare, greatly impact forest structure and biodiversity. Interactions of tropical fires with land use change and climate change could lead to future forest diebacks in places like the Amazon.

Better forest management can reduce the risk of fires starting in the first place: deforestation and degradation greatly increase the risk of fire in tropical forests, while in fire-prone ecosystems, overgrown forests results in more damaging fires. Early detection systems like VIIRS and rapid interagency cooperation mechanisms enable response to fires as early as possible to reduce damage and the costs of fire-fighting. To mitigate fire damage to people and forests, stopping the use of fire during dry times of year is crucial. Both Indonesia and Brazil have policies on the books to limit use of fire to clear land, but reports suggest these policies are not enforced effectively or are underfunded.

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Brazil’s Tree Cover Loss Doubles Due to Understory Fires

Brazil’s Amazonian region lost 3.7 million hectares (9.1 million acres) of tree cover during the 2016 calendar year, nearly three times more than in 2015. Most of that increase happened in the states of Pará and Maranhão, which were heavily affected by fire in late 2015 and 2016.

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Fire-related loss reflected in the 2016 data is mainly due to slow-moving fires that burn the understory, the layer of vegetation beneath the forest canopy. These fires generally do not kill all the trees or result in a change of how the land is used, which means the resulting damage to forests may not be picked up by other deforestation monitoring systems. They do, however, result in significant reductions in canopy coverbiomass storage  and  biodiversity (read more about these issues here).

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Understory fire in the Brazilian Amazon. Sustained heat from these slow-moving fires can kill small trees and increase mortality rates in following years. Image Credit: Jos Barlow.

The official government deforestation monitoring system, PRODES, recently reported a decrease in deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon for the period August 2016 – July 2017, an encouraging trend after the major increase reported last year. The Brazilian figures measure clear-cut deforestation of primary forest and likely do not capture much of the fire-related forest degradation detected by the University of Maryland tree cover loss data (read more about the difference between PRODES and the tree cover loss data here). Both trends are important, and the scale of disturbance captured by the 2016 tree cover loss data highlights the need for holistic monitoring of forest change and corresponding implications for climate change, biodiversity and the overall integrity of forest ecosystems.   Forest fires are likely to remain an important issue in Brazil – September 2017 had the most fires of any month since record-keeping began in 1998, with officials citing illegal fire usage compounded with lack of government oversight as the main cause.

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Strong Indonesian Fire Season Shows Up in 2016 Data

Indonesia also saw an increase in tree cover loss in 2016, likely related to the strong fire season of late 2015.

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The Indonesian fires of late 2015, well-documented by the media, were a major environmental disaster, releasing 1.62 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide. The resulting haze caused over 100,000 premature deaths. (Though many of the fires occurred in late 2015, most subsequent tree cover loss wasn’t recorded until early 2016. Learn why here.) The effects of logging and expansion of large- and small-scale plantations are also visible in Indonesia’s 2016 data. Papua experienced an uptick in tree cover loss last year, which has continued in 2016, with oil palm plantations continuing to expand in primary forest.

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Fire Losses in Europe, Africa and North America

Tree cover loss in Indonesia and Brazil accounted for more than a quarter of global tree cover loss. However, several other countries experienced massive fire-related forest loss in 2016.

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Portugal lost 4 percent of its total tree cover in 2016, the highest percentage of any country. Nearly half of all forest burned in the European Union in 2016 occurred in Portugal, exacerbated by the prevalence of fire-prone eucalyptus and pine plantations and poor land management and fire prevention practices. Recent deadly blazes point to another record-breaking year in 2017. In the Republic of Congo, one of the largest fires ever recorded in Central Africa destroyed 15,000 hectares (37,000 acres) of forest in early 2016. This fire, too, was likely strengthened by drought from El Niño and natural and human disturbance. Canada’s Fort McMurray fire destroyed over 600,000 hectares (1.5 million acres) of forest and caused $8.8 billion in damage. Although wildfires are a natural part of boreal forest ecosystems, the likelihood and intensity of fires can be increased by El Niño effects and climate change. Recent blazes in Brazil, California, Portugal and elsewhere suggest that forest fires are not going away – indeed, they may only get worse as the planet warms. The large scale of forests affected by fire and other drivers in 2016 makes it clear that, now more than ever, we need to work together towards better forest management.


The authors would like to acknowledge Matt Hansen, Peter Potapov and Svetlana Turubanova, who updated the tree cover loss data, and Doug Morton, Mark Cochrane and Carlos Nobre, who provided valuable background information for this article.


 

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{"Glossary":{"51":{"name":"agricultural tree crops","description":"Trees cultivated for their food, cultural, or economic values. These include oil palm, rubber, cocoa, cashew, mango, oranges (citrus), plantain, banana, and coconut.\r\n"},"141":{"name":"agroforestry","description":"A diversified set of agricultural or agropastoral production systems that integrate trees in the agricultural landscape.\r\n"},"101":{"name":"albedo","description":"The ability of surfaces to reflect sunlight.\u0026nbsp;Light-colored surfaces return a large part of the sunrays back to the atmosphere (high albedo). Dark surfaces absorb the rays from the sun (low albedo).\r\n"},"94":{"name":"biodiversity intactness","description":"The proportion and abundance of a location\u0027s original forest community (number of species and individuals) that remain.\u0026nbsp;\r\n"},"95":{"name":"biodiversity significance","description":"The importance of an area for the persistence of forest-dependent species based on range rarity.\r\n"},"142":{"name":"boundary plantings","description":"Trees planted along boundaries or property lines to mark them well.\r\n"},"98":{"name":"carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e)","description":"Carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) is a measure used to aggregate emissions from various greenhouse gases (GHGs) on the basis of their 100-year global warming potentials by equating non-CO2 GHGs to the equivalent amount of CO2.\r\n"},"99":{"name":"CO2e","description":"Carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) is a measure used to aggregate emissions from various greenhouse gases (GHGs) on the basis of their 100-year global warming potentials by equating non-CO2 GHGs to the equivalent amount of CO2.\r\n"},"1":{"name":"deforestation","description":"The change from forest to another land cover or land use, such as forest to plantation or forest to urban area.\r\n"},"77":{"name":"deforested","description":"The change from forest to another land cover or land use, such as forest to plantation or forest to urban area.\r\n"},"76":{"name":"degradation","description":"The reduction in a forest\u2019s ability to perform ecosystem services, such as carbon storage and water regulation, due to natural and anthropogenic changes.\r\n"},"75":{"name":"degraded","description":"The reduction in a forest\u2019s ability to perform ecosystem services, such as carbon storage and water regulation, due to natural and anthropogenic changes.\r\n"},"79":{"name":"disturbances","description":"A discrete event that changes the structure of a forest ecosystem.\r\n"},"68":{"name":"disturbed","description":"A discrete event that changes the structure of a forest ecosystem.\r\n"},"65":{"name":"driver of tree cover loss","description":"The direct cause of forest disturbance.\r\n"},"70":{"name":"drivers of loss","description":"The direct cause of forest disturbance.\r\n"},"81":{"name":"drivers of tree cover loss","description":"The direct cause of forest disturbance.\r\n"},"102":{"name":"evapotranspiration","description":"When solar energy hitting a forest converts liquid water into water vapor (carrying energy as latent heat) through evaporation and transpiration.\r\n"},"2":{"name":"forest","description":"Forests include tree cover greater than 30 percent tree canopy density and greater than 5 meters in height as mapped at a 30-meter Landsat pixel scale.\r\n"},"3":{"name":"forest concession","description":"A legal agreement allowing an entity the right to manage a public forest for production purposes.\r\n"},"90":{"name":"forest concessions","description":"A legal agreement allowing an entity the right to manage a public forest for production purposes.\r\n"},"53":{"name":"forest degradation","description":"The reduction in a forest\u2019s ability to perform ecosystem services, such as carbon storage and water regulation, due to natural and anthropogenic changes.\r\n"},"54":{"name":"forest disturbance","description":"A discrete event that changes the structure of a forest ecosystem.\r\n"},"100":{"name":"forest disturbances","description":"A discrete event that changes the structure of a forest ecosystem.\r\n"},"5":{"name":"forest fragmentation","description":"The breaking of large, contiguous forests into smaller pieces, with other land cover types interspersed.\r\n"},"6":{"name":"forest management plan","description":"A plan that documents the stewardship and use of forests and other wooded land to meet environmental, economic, social, and cultural objectives. Such plans are typically implemented by companies in forest concessions.\r\n"},"62":{"name":"forests","description":"Forests include tree cover greater than 30 percent tree canopy density and greater than 5 meters in height as mapped at a 30-meter Landsat pixel scale.\r\n"},"69":{"name":"fragmentation","description":"The breaking of large, contiguous forests into smaller pieces, with other land cover types interspersed.\r\n"},"80":{"name":"fragmented","description":"The breaking of large, contiguous forests into smaller pieces, with other land cover types interspersed.\r\n"},"74":{"name":"gain","description":"The establishment of tree canopy in an area that previously had no tree cover. Tree cover gain may indicate a number of potential activities, including natural forest growth or the crop rotation cycle of tree plantations.\r\n"},"143":{"name":"global land squeeze","description":"Pressure on finite land resources to produce food, feed and fuel for a growing human population while also sustaining biodiversity and providing ecosystem services.\r\n"},"7":{"name":"hectare","description":"One hectare equals 100 square meters, 2.47 acres, or 0.01 square kilometers and is about the size of a rugby field. A football pitch is slightly smaller than a hectare (pitches are between 0.62 and 0.82 hectares).\r\n"},"66":{"name":"hectares","description":"One hectare equals 100 square meters, 2.47 acres, or 0.01 square kilometers and is about the size of a rugby field. A football pitch is slightly smaller than a hectare (pitches are between 0.62 and 0.82 hectares).\r\n"},"67":{"name":"intact","description":"A forest that contains no signs of human activity or habitat fragmentation as determined by remote sensing images and is large enough to maintain all native biological biodiversity.\r\n"},"78":{"name":"intact forest","description":"A forest that contains no signs of human activity or habitat fragmentation as determined by remote sensing images and is large enough to maintain all native biological biodiversity.\r\n"},"8":{"name":"intact forests","description":"A forest that contains no signs of human activity or habitat fragmentation as determined by remote sensing images and is large enough to maintain all native biological biodiversity.\r\n"},"55":{"name":"land and environmental defenders","description":"People who peacefully promote and protect rights related to land and\/or the environment.\r\n"},"9":{"name":"loss driver","description":"The direct cause of forest disturbance.\r\n"},"10":{"name":"low tree canopy density","description":"Less than 30 percent tree canopy density.\r\n"},"84":{"name":"managed forest concession","description":"Areas where governments have given rights to private companies to harvest timber and other wood products from natural forests on public lands.\r\n"},"83":{"name":"managed forest concession maps for nine countries","description":"Cameroon, Canada, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Indonesia, Liberia, and the Republic of the Congo\r\n"},"104":{"name":"managed natural forests","description":"Naturally regenerated forests with signs of management, including logging, clear cuts, etc.\r\n"},"91":{"name":"megacities","description":"A city with more than 10 million people.\r\n"},"57":{"name":"megacity","description":"A city with more than 10 million people."},"56":{"name":"mosaic restoration","description":"Restoration that integrates trees into mixed-use landscapes, such as agricultural lands and settlements, where trees can support people through improved water quality, increased soil fertility, and other ecosystem services. This type of restoration is more likely in deforested or degraded forest landscapes with moderate population density (10\u2013100 people per square kilometer). "},"86":{"name":"natural","description":"A forest that is grown without human intervention.\r\n"},"12":{"name":"natural forest","description":"A forest that is grown without human intervention.\r\n"},"63":{"name":"natural forests","description":"A forest that is grown without human intervention.\r\n"},"144":{"name":"open canopy systems","description":"Individual tree crowns that do not overlap to form a continuous canopy layer.\r\n"},"82":{"name":"persistent gain","description":"Forests that have experienced one gain event from 2001 to 2016.\r\n"},"13":{"name":"persistent loss and gain","description":"Forests that have experienced one loss or one gain event from 2001 to 2016."},"97":{"name":"plantation","description":"An area in which trees have been planted, generally for commercial purposes.\u0026nbsp;\r\n"},"93":{"name":"plantations","description":"An area in which trees have been planted, generally for commercial purposes.\u0026nbsp;\r\n"},"88":{"name":"planted","description":"A forest composed of trees that have been deliberately planted and\/or seeded by humans.\r\n"},"14":{"name":"planted forest","description":"A forest composed of trees that have been deliberately planted and\/or seeded by humans.\r\n"},"73":{"name":"planted forests","description":"A forest composed of trees that have been deliberately planted and\/or seeded by humans.\r\n"},"15":{"name":"primary forest","description":"Old-growth forests that are typically high in carbon stock and rich in biodiversity. The GFR uses a humid tropical primary rainforest data set, representing forests in the humid tropics that have not been cleared in recent years.\r\n"},"64":{"name":"primary forests","description":"Old-growth forests that are typically high in carbon stock and rich in biodiversity. The GFR uses a humid tropical primary rainforest data set, representing forests in the humid tropics that have not been cleared in recent years.\r\n"},"58":{"name":"production forest","description":"A forest where the primary management objective is to produce timber, pulp, fuelwood, and\/or nonwood forest products."},"89":{"name":"production forests","description":"A forest where the primary management objective is to produce timber, pulp, fuelwood, and\/or nonwood forest products.\r\n"},"87":{"name":"seminatural","description":"A managed forest modified by humans, which can have a different species composition from surrounding natural forests.\r\n"},"59":{"name":"seminatural forests","description":"A managed forest modified by humans, which can have a different species composition from surrounding natural forests. "},"96":{"name":"shifting agriculture","description":"Temporary loss or permanent deforestation due to small- and medium-scale agriculture.\r\n"},"103":{"name":"surface roughness","description":"Surface roughness of forests creates\u0026nbsp;turbulence that slows near-surface winds and cools the land as it lifts heat from low-albedo leaves and moisture from evapotranspiration high into the atmosphere and slows otherwise-drying winds. \r\n"},"17":{"name":"tree cover","description":"All vegetation greater than five meters in height and may take the form of natural forests or plantations across a range of canopy densities. Unless otherwise specified, the GFR uses greater than 30 percent tree canopy density for calculations.\r\n"},"71":{"name":"tree cover canopy density is low","description":"Less than 30 percent tree canopy density.\r\n"},"60":{"name":"tree cover gain","description":"The establishment of tree canopy in an area that previously had no tree cover. Tree cover gain may indicate a number of potential activities, including natural forest growth or the crop rotation cycle of tree plantations.\u0026nbsp;As such, tree cover gain does not equate to restoration.\r\n"},"18":{"name":"tree cover loss","description":"The removal or mortality of tree cover, which can be due to a variety of factors, including mechanical harvesting, fire, disease, or storm damage. As such, loss does not equate to deforestation.\r\n"},"19":{"name":"tree plantation","description":"An agricultural plantation of fast-growing tree species on short rotations for the production of timber, pulp, or fruit.\r\n"},"72":{"name":"tree plantations","description":"An agricultural plantation of fast-growing tree species on short rotations for the production of timber, pulp, or fruit.\r\n"},"85":{"name":"trees outside forests","description":"Trees found in urban areas, alongside roads, or within agricultural land\u0026nbsp;are often referred to as Trees Outside Forests (TOF).\u202f\r\n"},"105":{"name":"unmanaged natural forests","description":"Naturally regenerated forests without any signs of management, including primary forest.\r\n"}}}