New Delhi: India moved up one spot to the ninth position in the world’s total forest area rankings and retained its third spot for annual forest gains, according to the United Nations’ Global Forest Resource Assessment (GFRA) 2025.
Union environment minister Bhupender Yadav attributed the improvement to the government’s conservation policies. “The achievement comes on the back of the Modi government’s planning and policies for the protection and enhancement of the forest and massive plantation efforts by state governments,” he posted Wednesday on ‘X’.
Released by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), GFRA tracks long-term forest trends and their impact on global biodiversity, climate and sustainable land use targets. This year’s assessment analysed 35 years of data from 236 countries across three periods: 1990-2000, 2000-2015, and 2015-2025.
India’s standing
In ninth place, India now has 72.74 million hectares of forest area, accounting for approximately 2 percent of the world’s forests.
Russia topped the rankings, with 832.63 million hectares—20 percent of global forest cover —followed by Brazil (486.09 million hectares), Canada (368.82 million hectares) and the US (308.90 million hectares).
In annual net forest gains between 2015 and 2025, India added approximately 191,000 hectares per year, trailing only China (1.69 million hectares per year) and Russia (942,000 hectares per year), the report said.
Gains slow down
Despite gains in some countries, the report revealed a worrying global trend.
Annual net forest loss, which declined from 10.7 million hectares per year in 1990-2000 to 3.68 million hectares per year in 2000-2015—largely due to increased forest cover in Canada, China, Russia and the US— rose to 4.12 million hectares per year in 2015-2025.
“The annual rate of net forest loss increased in the period 2015–2025, to 4.12 million ha, due to a reduction in the rate of forest gain (i.e. afforestation and natural forest expansion),” the report said.
Net forest gain in China, for instance, declined from 2.22 million hectares per year in 2000-2015 to 1.69 million hectares per year over the last ten years. In Canada, the drop was from 513,000 hectares per year to 82,500 hectares per year over the same timeframe.
Net forest gains in the US were in the red—from 437,000 hectares per year in 2000–2015 to a net forest loss of 120,000 hectares per year in 2015-2025.
(Edited by Prerna Madan)
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