We often talk about the destruction of forests around the world. For many consecutive years, we conducted ecological expeditions to the most remote corners of the Russian Taiga, from one end of Russia to the other, with a single goal — to witness the destruction of nature, document the problems, and assess their scale. And then — we sought recognition that such problems exist and that urgent measures are needed to protect our forests!
And if for many years the system did not acknowledge the destruction of Russia’s forests, then around 2019 — the highest “bigwigs” in power unanimously confirmed everything we had been talking about. Both regarding the global export of timber to China, and about the flourishing of forest banditry under the cover of regional authorities in Siberia and the Far East.


That was when the first reforms, the first changes, began.
Acknowledging the problems is good. But I do not think there are any real changes now. I sincerely hoped that if the problems were publicly confirmed and even some actions were taken to limit the export of timber from the country, it would mean a serious commitment to stopping the destruction of the Russian Taiga.
In practice, it turned out differently. Billions ended up in the hands of “forest bandits” who uncontrollably destroyed Russia’s forests and exported them to China. Now, the Chinese have simply been offered the chance to cut down forests without taxes and with colossal preferences directly on our territory, TORs (territories of advanced development) were created, and those same billions that previously went to regional authorities together with business — now go to the federal center.

Is this a solution to the problems of destroying the Russian Taiga? Of course not.
But now we see how hungry animals come to people from their ruined home. We see destitute tigers dragging dogs in villages! We see bears that cannot go into hibernation, and hunters who complain that when they kill bears, they find “very little fat.” We see many troubles in the Russian Taiga.
And how to deal with this — even I do not know. We tried! And we will keep trying.
Today, in this material, I want to visually show all readers the situation with the destruction of forests happening worldwide. If we rise ABOVE our heads, soar into the stratosphere, and look down from there at the small green planet — what will we see?
In general, there are not that many unified estimates of forest destruction in the world. Therefore, to get at least some objective data, let us turn to the reports of FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization) — a United Nations agency that deals with combating hunger, developing agriculture, fishing, forestry, and ensuring global food security.
Since the organization is large — they also have the ability to make practical calculations of deforestation. Although almost always — based on data provided by states. Studying their reports, the most recent (recent) one I found is from 2020! Naturally, over the past five years, the situation has worsened even more.
In 2020, they released a report titled Global Forest Resources Assessment. According to the data presented, from 2015 to 2020, the rate of forest destruction worldwide reaches the following figures:
The global loss of forests in the world is on the order of 10 million hectares ANNUALLY
- Of these, “net” (permanently lost) forests amount to about 4.7 million hectares.
And all these figures are approximate! The thing is, out of those 10 million, they subtract the forest areas that were restored as part of artificial reforestation or “assisted natural regeneration.” Our laws also contain such definitions! Earlier, I wrote separate materials; our own officials reported that reforestation is a completely different sphere of “forest banditry,” in which billions of budget funds are laundered,
Up to 90% of restored forests die. Most often they take the cheapest seedlings with a closed root system, just “quickly” stick them into the ground, and apparently the forest is “restored”! Or, if there is no oversight, then any reforestation exists only “on paper.”
And “assisted natural regeneration,” as a rule, is when during logging, on the devastated land, a few trees are left. Supposedly, they will somehow regenerate on their own!
Therefore, from personal experience, I can confidently say that this is not reforestation at all! And we can rely on UN data about the total forest loss — 10 million hectares per year.
Now let us delve deeper into the issue.
In total, between 1990 and 2020, people “developed” about 420 million hectares of forests globally. Part of this area was subject to “reforestation” or the same “assisted reforestation,” — thus, in the UN data for this period, the net forest loss in the world is about 178 million hectares of forests.
That means people on the planet have IRRETRIEVABLY lost 178 million hectares of forests. In just the last 30 years!
Meanwhile, as you know, I am convinced the numbers are much higher, and it would be good if out of the 420 million hectares of “developed” forests, people actually restored at least twenty million.
And I realize that for the reader, it might be hard to imagine this scale! What is it? Just numbers. So let me try to demonstrate it with examples of countries:
178 million hectares — that is the area of five Germanys or, say, three Frances. Or it can be compared to hits by the “Tsar Bomba,” the most powerful 50-megaton nuclear bomb in the world! You would need around four to five hundred such bombs to burn out an area of 178 million hectares of forest.
420 million hectares — that is an area exceeding all of India or the ENTIRE EUROPEAN UNION (its area is about 423 million hectares).
To destroy such forests, you would need to take a “Tsar Bomba” and pepper the planet with about 1,091 nuclear explosions, only then would forests on an area of 420 million hectares be burned.
I think the scale of deforestation is now clear.
For the 2020–2025 period, I did not find any data on logging; there are no such estimates yet. Everyone is busy with “big politics” and preparing for “future wars.” But let’s hope that scientific estimates will soon appear and be accurate enough!
If we talk about regions, the most logging takes place in poor tropical countries.
South America — especially in the Amazon Basin, where the largest logging occurs, mainly for agricultural purposes. Ancient forests with rich biodiversity are cut down for soybean plantations and so on.
Africa — based on personal experience, I can say the largest logging is in the Republic of Congo! I have seen this scale myself, just rotting stumps where once-thriving forests stood. Mostly it’s illegal logging, as well as completely uncontrolled expansion of industrial agriculture.
- Southeast Asia — logging also goes to plantations, for example, they grow oil palm (that very palm oil).
It is in these three regions that we see the most destructive deforestation on our planet. And it is in these regions that the greatest biological diversity of species is found, which completely disappears along with the destroyed forest. These forests are also the “southern lung of the Earth” — they cut down ancient tropical forests, — resulting in a violation of biotic climate regulation, air currents no longer flow into continents from the oceans, rivers dry up, and there is no rainfall.
And so we are now seeing, in recent years (mainly from 2020 to 2025), abnormal heat waves, drought, drying rivers. Meanwhile, the global climate is being disrupted across the entire planet!
Regarding our Russian Taiga, regarding the forests of Russia, it is very difficult to assess the scale. I studied all the data I could find in scientific sources and international organization reports!
The discrepancies are completely diametrical.
It is known that our country contains about 20% of all the world’s forests. That’s around 815 million hectares! We rank first among all countries in terms of forest area, which is why for many years I have been suggesting to our Government — to change the system and the logic of forest management from a “raw-material colony” into a global nature reserve state.
If you are not yet familiar, I highly recommend looking into our proposal under the Concept of Territories of Complete Environmental Tranquility (ТПЭС).
So what about the statistics on deforestation in Russia?
Official “state bigwigs” say that everything is wonderful here, and thanks to natural reforestation, combined with artificial reforestation, the area of forests remains stable or even slightly “increases.”
In general, everything is as usual.
Meanwhile, many international organizations and the expert community have repeatedly reported an extreme degree of forest degradation, including due to destructive fires and illegal logging. Also, I have seen data and checked it myself: it was claimed, “this is forest territory,” — but in practice, there is no real forest there. Only burn scars, continuous clear-cuts, and areas overgrown with shrubs.


I managed to find data from an interesting project that collects and analyzes logging around the world through satellite monitoring. The project is called Global Forest Watch (GFW) — they generally assess overall forest loss, some of which may later be restored, and so on.
But, given that up to 90% of reforestation in Russia is fictitious, we can quite view overall satellite analytics as relevant at this time.
Thus, according to GFW, from 2001 to 2020, Russia’s total forest loss was about 64–65 million hectares. That is data for just 19 years!
Moreover, specialists analyzing satellite data believe that the average annual loss of tree cover can be several million hectares per year!
THAT IS, IN OUR COUNTRY — MILLIONS OF HECTARES OF FOREST ARE DESTROYED EVERY YEAR WITHOUT RECOVERY
We must also bear in mind that our northern taiga recovers many times more slowly than, for example, tropical forests! And artificial forest plantations, as I said earlier, are largely fictitious; moreover, where they do exist, they usually plant monocultures, which in no way compensates for the loss or the future preservation of biodiversity. And in the remote regions of Siberia and the Far East, where there has never been any oversight, any forest restoration is negligible. I have seen this personally in my many expeditions: you come to a logging site in a remote area, say, in the Ambarnaya River basin, and everything that could possibly be destroyed has been destroyed. They brought in heavy machinery — tore up the land, cut down the ancient forest, left dry trunks, and departed.
And then what happens?
Right.
The logging sites cluttered with dry brushwood — that’s what becomes the SEEDBEDS OF UNCONTROLLED MASSIVE FIRES.
Interestingly, according to officials — everything is wonderful with us, and forests are even “growing.” FAO (a UN agency) also relies only on official data provided by states about logging and reforestation in their territories! By the way, that is precisely why I believe their data is not objective.
But let us suppose an independent international project with satellite monitoring — shows a completely different picture. Quite VISIBLY, we can see the largest-scale disappearance of the Russian Taiga, only part of which will recover later, while the greater part will turn into degraded areas.
That is the situation with deforestation around the world!
In the next material, we will discuss reforestation worldwide — how it is carried out and whether it really addresses, at least to some extent, the problem of losing biodiversity! Also, what can be done instead of senselessly destroying forests on the planet.
Spread this material and support our work so that we can continue to tell the truth and fight for our shared future! For Life!
© PAVEL PASHKOV
Support the fight!
The hardest thing in our time is to remain independent from government and business! All activities are carried out independently. Stand with us and support our Mission to protect wildlife.
I want to support!The Concept of TEPT
The world is experiencing the sixth mass extinction of species, with humans having wiped out up to 73% of animals, while the problems remain unresolved. We propose a solution — the Concept of Territories of Total Ecological Peace. Learn about the Concept and become part of our fight!
Learn the Concept