The Destruction Scale

Global rainforest loss runs at roughly ten million hectares per year — an area about the size of South Korea every year. The Amazon, Congo Basin, and Southeast Asian forests are the main frontlines. The drivers vary by region but share common economic forces.

In the Amazon, cattle ranching drives roughly eighty percent of deforestation.

The destruction feeds a vicious cycle. Deforestation releases stored carbon, which accelerates warming, which stresses the remaining forest through drought and fire, which causes further dieback — a feedback loop that could push the Amazon past a point of no return within decades.