Voices: No more grandstanding: Deforestation pledges will go up in flames if we ignore inequality

In 2024, the majority of tropical forests didn’t fall to the chainsaw; they burned.

For the first time on record, wildfires became the primary cause of tropical forest loss, as global deforestation spiked to levels “unlike anything we've seen in over 20 years of data”, said Elizabeth Goldman, co-director of Global Forest Watch.