Honest projection · estimated
Tropical Forest Lost Today (est.)
A projection of how much tropical primary rainforest the world has lost since midnight UTC, ticking at the most recent annual total spread evenly across the year. Real loss comes in fits and starts — fires, clearing, a bad drought year — this is the yearly average made visible. The figure is tropical primary forest (permanent rainforest), not all tree-cover loss. Forest cover by country lives in Atlas.
About this number
This is an honest projection, not a census. It is computed by carrying a published figure forward at a known rate over real elapsed time — ≈ 18 football pitches/min, from Global Forest Watch / WRI 2024 — 6.7 million hectares of tropical primary forest lost in 2024 (UMD GLAD lab), spread evenly across the year. The source is Global Forest Watch / WRI 2024. The true value is known only to within a margin; this is the running estimate, and we label it as one.