Ecuador Tree Cover Loss (Global Forest Watch)

## What this measures

The area of tree cover lost in Ecuador each year, from all causes, in hectares. It is mapped from Landsat satellite imagery at 30-metre resolution by the University of Maryland and published by Global Forest Watch. Annual since 2001; each value is dated December 31 of its year.

## Why it matters

Forest loss is a large source of carbon emissions that fossil-fuel statistics miss, and it is the physical footprint behind deforestation rules for commodity supply chains such as soy, beef, palm oil, cocoa, timber and pulp.

## How to read it

Lower is better. Read the trend over several years: fire seasons and harvest cycles make single years jumpy.

## What it does not say

Tree cover loss is not the same as deforestation. It counts any removal or death of tree canopy, including wildfires, storms, and the harvest of plantations and managed forests that will regrow, and it does not net out regrowth. Global Forest Watch cautions that improvements to the method over the years make long-run comparisons less reliable.

## Source

Global Forest Watch (2025), tree cover loss, processed by Our World in Data (chart `tree-cover-loss`). Cite: Hansen, M.C., Potapov, P.V., Moore, R. et al. (2013), High-Resolution Global Maps of 21st-Century Forest Cover Change, Science 342: 850–853; data from the University of Maryland, Google, USGS and NASA, accessed through Global Forest Watch (www.globalforestwatch.org). License: CC BY 4.0. Our World in Data processing is CC BY 4.0.