NEW DELHI: India has improved its international rank to ninth when it comes to forest space as in comparison with tenth within the earlier evaluation, and maintained its third place when it comes to annual internet acquire, confirmed the most recent International Forest Useful resource Evaluation (GFRA) report.Launched each 5 years by UN‘s Meals and Agriculture Group (FAO), the report’s 2025 version famous that though total deforestation has slowed in all areas globally within the final decade, forest ecosystems worldwide proceed to face challenges as the present fee of deforestation at 10.9 million hectares per yr remains to be too excessive.Hearth affected a median of 261 million hectares of land yearly, almost half of which is forested, whereas bugs, illnesses and extreme climate broken about 41 million hectares of forests, primarily in temperate and boreal areas in 2020, the report launched in Bali on Tuesday underlined.Globally, forests cowl 4.14 billion hectares which accounts for almost one-third (32 %) of the worldwide land space, equal to 0.5 hectares per individual. Almost half of the world’s forests are situated within the tropics.“The achievement comes on the again of Modi authorities’s planning and insurance policies for cover and enhancement of the forest and large plantation efforts by state governments,” mentioned Union setting minister Bhupender. Yadav whereas reacting to India’s improved international rank in 2025 in comparison with its earlier place.Yadav on which, he mentioned, are constructing consciousness and growing involvement of communities and people for afforestation. “It will guarantee a greener tomorrow for generations to return,” the minister posted on Wednesday.GFRA, based mostly on official nationwide information, has put India’s forest cowl at 72.7 million hectares in 2025, accounting for roughly 2 % of the world forest space. Based on India State of Forest Report (ISFR) 2023, the nation’s forest cowl stands at 71.5 million hectares.Globally, Russia has the very best forest cowl (832.6 million hectares) adopted by Brazil (486 million hectares), Canada (368.8 million hectares), the USA (308.8 million hectares), China (227 million hectares), Congo (139 million hectares), Australia (133.5 million hectares), Indonesia (96 million hectares), India (72.7 million hectares) and Peru (67 million hectares). In actual fact, greater than half (54%) of the full world forest space is concentrated in simply 5 international locations — Russia, Brazil, Canada, the USA and China.By way of forest enlargement, China recorded the very best annual internet acquire in forest space between 2015 and 2025 at 1.69 million hectares per yr, adopted by Russia (9,42,000 hectares), India (1,91,000 hectares), Turkey (1,18,000 ha), Australia (1,05,000 ha), France (95,900 ha), Indonesia (94,100 ha), South Africa (87,600 ha), Canada (82,500 ha) and Vietnam (72,800 ha).The evaluation report exhibits that Asia is the one area to file a rise in forest space between 1990 and 2025, led by positive aspects in China and India.It exhibits that 91 international locations reported agroforestry of 55.4 million ha in 2025. The bulk (39.3 million ha) of this space is in Asia, largely South and Southeast Asia, with India and Indonesia accounting for nearly 100% of the regional whole and for 70% of the worldwide whole.“FRAs are essentially the most complete and clear international evaluations of forest sources and their situation, administration and makes use of, masking all of the thematic parts of sustainable forest administration. The information they produce serve a number of functions, from informing the worldwide neighborhood of the standing of forests and their adjustments, to supporting selections, insurance policies and investments associated to forests and the ecosystem companies they supply,” mentioned FAO. director-general, QU Dongyu, within the foreword to the report.