The story of the world’s tropical forests in 2025 was not one of dramatic reversal, but one shaped by accumulated pressure. In several regions, deforestation slowed. In others, loss continued in less visible forms, shaped by fire, degradation, and political choices not limited to large-scale clearing alone. Governments continued to speak the language of protection, even as infrastructure, extraction, and energy projects advanced into forest landscapes. Progress was real, though uneven, and the distance between policy commitments and conditions on the ground remained substantial...........
What distinguished the year was the growing influence of indirect forces, rather than a single driver of loss. Heat, drought, and past damage increasingly shaped forest outcomes, even where new clearing slowed. Commodity markets rewarded persistence more than short-lived price spikes. Finance shifted away from individual projects toward broader fiscal tools. Enforcement mattered, alongside institutional credibility and the ability to operate consistently over time. Taken together, 2025 underscored that tropical forests are now shaped more by interacting systems rather than single policies. Finance, science, enforcement, conflict, and climate stress increasingly operate together, often reinforcing one another. This review traces where those systems functioned, where they faltered, and what that means for the forests caught within them.
Previous year-in-reviews:
2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | The 2010s | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015 | 2014 | 2013 | 2012 | 2011 | 2009
Contents:
The Amazon | The Congo Basin | Indonesia | COP30 | Tropical Forest Forever Facility | EUDR | Commodities | Forest carbon markets | American retreat | Forest recovery and regeneration | Tropical forest ecology | Remote sensing Check it all Out......https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/the-year-in-rainforests-2025-deforestation-fell-the-risks-did-not
AND.......At the global level, climate diplomacy continued, with limited appetite for binding decisions. COP30 avoided collapse and deferred the hardest choices. Forests remained prominent in rhetoric while enforceable outcomes remained limited. Market-based tools—carbon credits, trade regulation, and conservation finance—advanced unevenly, shaped as much by political confidence and capacity as by technical design........
HOWEVER.....The first amphibian to halt a hydroelectric dam now takes on the climate crisis Mongabay News Dec 28, 2025
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Known in Brazil as the admirable little red-bellied toad, the rare Melanophryniscus admirabilis is endemic to a stretch of the Forqueta River in Rio Grande do Sul state. It made history in 2014 when it halted the construction of a hydroelectric dam that would have destroyed its only habitat.
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After the 2024 floods, researchers returned to the area to assess the impacts of the state’s biggest climate catastrophe on its environment.
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With just over a thousand individuals in the wild, the species is listed as “critically endangered”; in addition to climate change, the little toad suffers from the advance of monocultures and the threat of wildlife trafficking.
ARVOREZINHA, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil — The admirable little red-bellied toad is the size of a thumb, but it has achieved giant feats: In 2014, it prevented the construction of a small hydroelectric dam that threatened to alter its only habitat forever. Endemic to a small stretch of the Forqueta River, in the municipality of Arvorezinha, Rio Grande do Sul, Melanophryniscus admirabilis is one of the rarest and most threatened species on the planet. Recently, after the floods that devastated the state in 2024, researchers returned to this refuge to assess whether the little toad that once halted the construction of a dam has survived the force of the waters.In October 2025, almost a year and a half after the biggest climate disaster in Rio Grande do Sul, I joined a team of researchers that would document what remained of the small habitat where just over a thousand little red-bellied toads used to live. The destination was Perau de Janeiro, a hidden fold of rocks and humid forest. Seen from above, the place, which is surrounded by tobacco plantations and pastures, looks like a common forest scene. But as we go down a steep trail, the atmosphere changes immediately. The smell of moss, the shining wet outcrop, the sound of the powerful flow of the river that ends in a waterfall: It was there that the little toad halted progress. And it was there where we wanted to find out if it still vocalized.
Described by science in 2006, the little toad belongs to the Bufonidae family, and, despite being able to jump, it prefers to walk slowly as if measuring the ground before taking each step. Its green back and its little colorful legs and belly form an unlikely contrast for someone who prefers not to be seen but insists on being remembered. These warning colors serve as an alert to visually oriented predators that the animal is toxic, dangerous or unpalatable — a defense mechanism known as aposematism.The eyes that observe them quickly jump to the light green dots that form patterns on the bottom of their abdominal area. “I say that when we observe these little spots, they are like constellations. So we can see some patterns, as if we were looking at the stars,” says Michelle Abadie, a biologist and the leader of the research team, comparing the toad’s macroglands to dots in the sky. The glands release toxins as a defense mechanism but also serve as individual identification similar to a human fingerprint.Abadie has been working with the species for 15 years, and since the beginning of her research, she has faced challenges when it comes to keeping the toad population stable.......read on https://mongabay1.substack.com/p/the-first-amphibian-to-halt-a-hydroelectric?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=5165423&post_id=182554890&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=mwxsy&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email
