News Earth

A new map reveals the causes of forest loss worldwide

Most forest loss occurring in the world leaves the possibility of trees growing back

forest in Indonesia

DISAPPEARING TREES  Forests like this one in Indonesia are being lost to industrial agriculture.

Konstantin Aksenov/Shutterstock

By Laurel Hamers

- More than 2 years ago

If a tree falls in the forest, will another replace it?

Of the roughly 3 million square kilometers of forest lost worldwide from 2001 to 2015, a new analysis suggests that 27 percent of that loss was permanent — the result of land being converted for industrial agriculture to meet global demand for products such as soy, timber, beef and palm oil.