Deforestation glossary

This deforestation glossary explains 42 terms from news stories, company reports and EU law in plain language. Each definition is footnoted to the organization behind the official wording, such as FAO, the IPCC, the European Union or Global Forest Watch.

Deforestation terms from A to Z

Additionality

A climate action is additional if its emission cuts or removals would not have happened without it. The IPCC calls it a key test of a carbon offset’s integrity.¹

Afforestation

Creating forest by planting or seeding on land that was not forest before: under another land use (FAO) or historically without forest (IPCC).²³

Agroforestry

Farming that deliberately combines trees, shrubs, palms or bamboo with crops or livestock on the same plot.⁴ FAO does not count it as forest when crops grow under the trees.²

Biodiversity

The variety of life: diversity within species, between species and of ecosystems, as defined by the UN Convention on Biological Diversity.⁵

Carbon sink

Any process that removes a greenhouse gas such as carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, for example trees taking up carbon as they grow.¹

Carbon stock

The amount of carbon held in a pool such as living trees, dead wood or soil.¹ The world’s forests hold 714 gigatonnes, according to FAO.⁶

Clear-cutting

Felling all marketable trees in an area so that no significant tree cover remains.⁷ It is deforestation only if the land is then converted to another use.²

Deforestation

The conversion of forest to another land use, human-induced or not (FAO).² The EU law narrows it to conversion to agricultural use.⁸ See what drives it.

Deforestation-free

Under the EUDR: produced on land not deforested after 31 December 2020 and, for wood, harvested without causing forest degradation after that date.⁸

Desertification

Land degradation in arid, semi-arid and dry sub-humid areas, driven by climate variations and human activities.¹ It is one of the consequences named in the film.

Due diligence statement (EUDR)

A filing a company submits to the EU before selling or exporting covered products. It lists the country of production and the geolocation of every plot, and declares no or only negligible risk.⁸ Small primary producers in low-risk countries may file a simplified declaration instead.⁹

Ecosystem services

Benefits people get from nature: food and fiber, climate regulation, carbon storage, recreation and spiritual value.³

EUDR

The EU Deforestation Regulation (EU) 2023/1115. Cattle, cocoa, coffee, oil palm, rubber, soya, wood and products made from them may only be sold in or exported from the EU if deforestation-free, legally produced and covered by due diligence.⁸ Its main obligations apply from 30 December 2026, later for some small firms.⁹ See our EUDR guide.

Forest

FAO definition: land of more than 0.5 hectares with trees taller than 5 meters and canopy cover above 10 percent, or trees able to reach these thresholds. Farm and urban land is excluded, so oil palm plantations are not forest.² The EUDR uses the same thresholds.⁸

Forest degradation

Harm that leaves land forested but in worse condition. FAO leaves the definition to each country.² The EUDR defines it as converting primary or naturally regenerating forest into plantations or other wooded land, or primary forest into planted forest.⁸

Forest landscape restoration

The ongoing process of regaining ecological function and improving human well-being across deforested or degraded landscapes (IUCN).¹⁰

Free, prior and informed consent (FPIC)

The collective right of Indigenous Peoples and local communities to give or withhold consent before any activity that may affect their lands, resources or livelihoods.¹¹

FSC

The Forest Stewardship Council, a non-profit that sets standards for responsible forest management and supply chains, checked by independent certifiers.¹²

Geolocation (EUDR)

A plot’s latitude and longitude to at least six decimal places. Plots over four hectares, except for cattle, must be mapped as polygons.⁸

Global Forest Watch

A free satellite forest-monitoring platform launched by the World Resources Institute in 2014. Renamed Global Nature Watch in September 2026; its forest data and tools carried over.¹³

High conservation value (HCV)

A biological, ecological, social or cultural value of outstanding significance, grouped into six categories from species diversity to cultural values.¹⁴

Intact forest landscape

Natural forest and related ecosystems with no signs of significant human activity, at least 500 square kilometers in area and 10 kilometers wide.¹⁵

Jurisdictional REDD+

REDD+ run by a government across a whole province, district or similar territory instead of project by project, partly to avoid leakage.¹⁶

Leakage

When a policy pushes environmental damage elsewhere, undoing part of its effect.¹ Example: clearing stops in a park but moves to the next valley.

Mangroves

Coastal forests in more than 120 tropical and subtropical countries and territories, covering less than 1 percent of tropical forest.¹⁷

Monoculture

Growing a single crop, plant or livestock species, variety or breed in a field at a time,¹⁸ such as a large oil palm plantation.

Natural regeneration

Trees growing back on their own, without planting or seeding.² One of the ways forests return.

Peatland

Waterlogged land where dead plants build up as peat. It covers at least 3 percent of land but stores more carbon than all other vegetation types combined, forests included. Draining or burning it releases that carbon.¹⁹

Permanence

How long stored carbon stays stored, given how land is managed and disturbed.²⁰ A protected forest can still burn later.

Planted forest

Forest grown mainly from planting or seeding.² It covers about 312 million hectares, around 8 percent of global forest.⁶

Primary forest

Native forest with no clearly visible signs of human activity.² At least 1.18 billion hectares remain.⁶ Global Forest Watch tracks humid tropical primary forest, excluding plantations and young regrowth.²¹

REDD+

Reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation, plus conservation and better forest management. Introduced in UN climate talks in 2005, it gives developing countries incentives to cut emissions from forest land.³

Reforestation

Re-establishing forest by planting or seeding: on land still classed as forest (FAO) or on former forest converted to another use (IPCC).²³

RSPO

The Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil, a non-profit formed in 2004 that sets standards and runs certification for sustainable palm oil.²²

Secondary forest

Forest regrowing on land largely cleared of its original cover.²³

Selective logging

Cutting one or a few tree species instead of clearing the forest.²⁴ Not deforestation, but it can degrade forest.

Shifting cultivation

Short periods of cropping followed by long periods of fallow, when the plot regrows.²⁵

Smallholder

A small-scale farmer or forest producer relying mainly on family labor, for whom the farm is the main livelihood.¹¹

Soy moratorium

A traders’ pact not to buy soy from Amazon land deforested after July 2008. After a Mato Grosso tax law, the industry group ABIOVE announced its exit in January 2026;²⁶ by July no company was still listed as a signatory.²⁷

Tipping point

A threshold beyond which a system reorganizes, often abruptly or irreversibly.¹ One study estimates that by 2050, 10 to 47 percent of Amazon forests will face combined disturbances that may trigger such shifts.²⁸

Tree cover loss

Any removal or death of trees at least 5 meters tall, from logging, fire, disease or storms. It includes deforestation but also loss where trees regrow, so the two are not the same.²⁹²¹ Fire caused 42 percent of 2025’s 25.5 million hectares.²⁹

Zero-deforestation commitment

A company pledge that its production or sourcing will not cause deforestation. It may set a cutoff date after which any clearing breaks the pledge.¹¹

Deforestation or tree cover loss: which word fits?

Use deforestation when forest is replaced by pasture, cropland or a town. Use tree cover loss for what satellites see: any lost canopy, including fire and harvests that will regrow. The numbers answer different questions, so never compare them directly. Our deforestation statistics keep them apart.

Which terms matter for the EU deforestation law?

If you trade cattle, cocoa, coffee, palm oil, rubber, soy or wood with the EU, start with five entries: EUDR, deforestation-free, forest degradation, geolocation and the due diligence statement. The law sets its own definitions for each, and they do not always match FAO’s. Our EUDR guide explains the obligations.

Why do official definitions differ?

Each is built for a job. FAO’s forest thresholds are the yardstick for its global assessment of 236 countries and areas.⁶ The EUDR borrows them but defines deforestation as conversion to agricultural use.⁸ The IPCC gives some words, such as reforestation, a different meaning. When a report quotes a number, check whose definition sits behind it.