WHAT THE EVIDENCE SAYS
Annual tropical land-use maps from 1990–2023 indicate an 18.1% loss of undisturbed rainforest cover. Losses were uneven: about 25% in Asia, 14.8% in Africa and 14.5% in the Americas, with especially large regional declines in Southeast Asia, West Africa, the Amazon deforestation arc and Central America. The area of remaining forest within 100 metres of an edge increased by about 6.6%, showing that fragmentation rose alongside outright loss.
WHY IT MATTERS / OUR READ
Forest area and forest configuration are different conservation variables. A landscape can retain mapped rainforest while exposing more of it to edge-related changes in microclimate, disturbance and access. Monitoring only net area can therefore understate how much interior habitat and ecological continuity have changed.
CAVEATS / UNCERTAINTY
The analysis depends on remote-sensing classifications and a fixed 100-m edge-distance metric. Edge exposure is a structural proxy, not a direct measurement of biodiversity loss or microclimatic change at every site.
SOURCE
Scientific Reports · Original evidence
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