News > Data shows the world has lost a Switzerland-size area of primary rainforest in 2019

Data shows the world has lost a Switzerland-size area of primary rainforest in 2019

Last year the world lost some 119,000 square kilometres of tree cover – an area the size of Nicaragua. Almost a third of that loss – or an area the size of Switzerland – came from primary humid tropical forests, which house most of the planet’s plant and animal species and play an important role in climate regulation. Brazil, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Indonesia took the top three spots in terms of absolute primary forest loss, followed by Bolivia, Peru and Malaysia.