Biodiversity is unevenly distributed across the planet, making the more than 16,600 identified KBAs—sites critical for the persistence of species and ecosystems—especially important to safeguard for sustaining life on Earth. Roughly two thirds of KBAs are at least partially within protected and conserved areas, with average protected coverage of each KBA reaching 45 per cent by 2025, up from 25 per cent in 2000. However, progress has largely stalled since 2015 and remains uneven, exceeding 60 per cent in Europe and Northern America but falling below 25 per cent in parts of Oceania. Coverage across marine, terrestrial, freshwater and mountain ecosystems remains broadly similar at around 42 to 47 per cent.

A significant protection gap persists, and many countries may have identified only a portion of their KBAs – potentially as little as half – leaving some of the world’s most important biodiversity sites likely unrecognized and unprotected. Expanding protection and updating KBA networks will be essential by 2030. Countries worldwide are intensifying efforts to identify and protect KBAs. In 2025, newly protected and conserved areas were established across countries including Argentina, Canada, Colombia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, French Polynesia, Indonesia, Mozambique, New Zealand and Peru.

Forests sustain biodiversity, regulate water cycles, buffer climate extremes and provide livelihoods for hundreds of millions of people. But they face mounting pressure from climate-induced wildfires, pests and ongoing land conversion. Over the past 35 years, global forests shrank by 203.1 million hectares, including a loss of 41 million hectares since 2015. This translates to a decline from 33.3 per cent of Earth’s land in 1990 to 31.8 per cent today. While the world continues to lose forest area, the pace of loss is slowing. Deforestation fell from 17.6 million hectares per year in 1990–2000 to 10.9 million hectares per year in 2015–2025. When combined with forest expansion in some countries, the net loss rate has dropped by more than half – from 10.7 million hectares per year in the 1990s to 4.1 million hectares per year in 2015–2025. However, this recent rate slightly exceeds the average for 2000–2015, as forest expansion slowed.

Yet progress in sustainable forest management is tangible. One fifth (20 per cent) of the world’s forests are in legally established protected areas and more than half (55 per cent of total forest area) are under long-term management plans. Above-ground biomass – the total mass of living plant material above the soil, including trees, shrubs and vines – has also increased. These improvements point to stronger governance and growth in many forests.

However, these gains cannot offset losses in regions where deforestation persists. While forest area expanded in parts of Asia, Europe and Northern America through afforestation, including restoration and natural expansion, three regions account for most global losses. Latin America and the Caribbean, sub-Saharan Africa and South-Eastern Asia have each lost more than 14 per cent of their forests since 1990, and the pace has not slowed since 2000. Sub-Saharan Africa alone is home to 8 of the 10 countries with the largest percentage declines in forest area since 1990; some have lost more than 50 per cent of their forest area.

Arresting forest loss at the global scale requires targeted action where it matters most – particularly in the regions most affected, where agricultural expansion for crops and livestock remains the primary driver. Stronger policies to curb deforestation, investment in restoration and sustainable agriculture, and political commitment will be essential.

Global biodiversity loss continues to worsen, with more than 48,600 species under threat of extinction. The Red List Index, which measures trends in overall extinction risk across species, has declined from 0.80 in 1993 to below 0.75 in 2025, as species have been increasingly pushed towards extinction. Declines have been particularly pronounced in Southern Asia and Latin America and the Caribbean.

Corals – the most rapidly deteriorating of any species group – exemplify the accelerating biodiversity crisis. One third of warm-water reef-building corals were at high risk of extinction in 2008, rising to 44 per cent by 2025. Climate change, pollution and unsustainable fishing compound these deterioriations. As reefs decline, so do the livelihoods of almost 1 billion people who rely on the fisheries, tourism, coastal protection and cultural values they provide.