Panama · Forest Area · % of land

## What this measures

Land in Panama under forest (more than half a hectare with trees taller than five metres and canopy cover above 10%) as a share of total land area. FAO's measure for UN Sustainable Development Goal target 15.1. Annual, percent.

## Why it matters

Forest cover is the slowest-moving environmental ledger there is. Deforestation drives emissions, water loss and conflict over land, and it is a supply-chain risk for anyone sourcing commodities from forest frontiers.

## How to read it

Read direction and pace, not level: a place with little forest can be adding it, and a forest-rich one losing it. Year-to-year changes are small; a tenth of a point is a large area in a big country.

## What it does not say

FAO collects national data in assessments every five years and interpolates the years between, so annual changes are smooth by construction and a sudden clearing shows up late. Plantations count as forest. Published with a lag of about two years.

## Source

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), Forest Resources Assessment via FAOSTAT, via World Bank World Development Indicators, indicator `AG.LND.FRST.ZS`. Licence per the World Bank's indicator metadata: CC BY 4.0. Palanor rewrites the full history each week (/api/cron/sovereign-sync), so revisions carry through.