Thailand and Vietnam bucked the regional trend, with relatively low forest losses in protected areas, supported by logging bans, reforestation initiatives, and stricter law enforcement.
BANGKOK -- The Mekong countries of Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam lost a combined area of tree cover of nearly a million hectares in 2024, or an area almost the size of Lebanon. That's according to Mongabay's analysis* of satellite data published by the Global Land Analysis and Discovery (GLAD) laboratory at the University of Maryland, in partnership with Global Forest Watch (GFW).
GFW data show 991,801 hectares (2.45 million acres) of tree cover were lost in 2024, including nearly 220,000 hectares (544,000 acres) of primary forest, across the five Mekong countries. More than 30% of tree cover loss recorded in 2024 occurred inside protected areas, although across the region, the rate of deforestation -- both within protected areas and outside of them -- slowed slightly from 2023. Despite this, the drivers of deforestation vary somewhat from country to country, and last year's losses still reflect a grim trajectory for forests in the Mekong region.
The economies of almost all Mekong countries are heavily reliant on agriculture, with forests cleared for both agribusiness-run plantations or subsistence farming plots. But research indicates the conversion of forest to croplands has resulted in increasingly unpredictable weather patterns and subsequently poorer agricultural yields.
Illegal logging has also ravaged the Mekong's forests, while large-scale infrastructure projects threaten critical ecosystems.
Calamity in Cambodia's protected areas
GFW data show that Cambodia lost more than 93,000 hectares (230,000 acres) of forest in 2024. While this was 22.6% lower than in 2023, the majority of the deforestation -- roughly 56% of all tree cover loss recorded in 2024 -- occurred inside Cambodia's protected areas. These calculations were based on official government data sets for protected areas, after Cambodia's protected area network expanded by roughly a million hectares (2.5 million acre) in mid-2023.
This trend continued from 2023 throughout 2024, when 51,500 hectares (127,300 acres) of protected tree cover were lost in Cambodia, an area nearly the size of Guam, despite regulations prohibiting forest clearance in these areas. Some of the losses can be attributed to forest fires (although GFW estimates fires accounted for just 0.97% of all tree cover loss between 2001 and 2024) and the felling of rubber trees that had been planted atop previously cleared protected land. But logging operations and infrastructure development pose far greater threats to many of the country's protected areas.
Few places underscore this issue more than the 490,000-hectare (1.21-million-acre) Prey Lang Wildlife Sanctuary, an embattled lowland rainforest in central Cambodia that has long been targeted by loggers, miners and poachers, and is now the site of new high-voltage transmission lines that have bisected the forest in recent months.
Last year saw another 9,346 hectares (23,094 acres) of Prey Lang cleared, an area slightly smaller than the French capital Paris -- although the 2024 data show a slowing of deforestation in the sanctuary, dropping from 11,441 hectares (28,271 acres) of tree cover lost in 2023.
Other notable losses were racked up in Beng Per Wildlife Sanctuary, which spans some 265,000 hectares (655,000 acres) but has since 2001 lost roughly 142,000 hectares (351,000 acres), mostly for vast rubber and cashew plantations operated by the Cambodian elite. Tree cover loss in Beng Per held steady, with 7,206 hectares (17,806 acres) lost in 2023 and 7,268 hectares (17,960 acres) lost in 2024, although some of this likely includes rubber trees that have since been planted within the wildlife sanctuary.
Likewise, logging continues at breakneck pace in Veun Sai-Siem Pang National Park, where some 4,000 hectares (9,900 acres) were lost in 2024. This number represents a marked drop from the roughly 5,200 hectares (12,850 acres) of tree cover lost in the park in 2023 -- but this 280,000-hectare (692,000-acre) national park was only established in 2023 and since then has already lost more than 9,000 hectares (22,200 acres) of tree cover, much of it old-growth forest. Logging linked to the politically connected company TSMW appears to be the primary driver of deforestation in Veun Sai-Siem Pang National Park.
Logging operations and hydropower dam development in the Cardamom Mountains, along the country's western border with Thailand, also saw significant forest cover loss in both Phnom Samkos Wildlife Sanctuary and Kravanh National Park, where REDD+ advocates are attempting to conserve the rainforest through the sale of carbon credits.
"Large-scale forest destruction continues in Cambodia unabated, despite the denials of the regime's stooges in the ministries," said Marcus Hardtke, a veteran forest activist who has worked in Cambodia for three decades. "It is not at the level of the 1990s, but that [is] mainly because the resources have been, to a large extent, decimated over the years. We are now seeing regime cronies targeting high value conservation forests in remote areas, with the blessing and protection of the higher echelons in the government."
Losses mounting in Laos
In Laos, more than 351,000 hectares (867,000 acres) of tree cover were lost in 2024, according to GFW. Of that, 223,493 hectares (552,236 acres) were lost within Laos's 1.2 million hectares (3 million acres) of protected areas. 2024 marked a steep decline from 2023, when more than 445,000 hectares (1.1 million acres) of tree cover were destroyed.
Among the worst-affected parts of Laos was Luang Prabang province, where nearly 40,000 hectares (99,000 acres) of tree cover were lost last year. Some of the deforestation can be attributed to a 1,460-megawatt hydroelectric dam, the construction of which began in 2020 just 25 kilometers (15 miles) upstream of a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Across Laos, the expansion of agricultural and mining concessions to meet growing demand from the Chinese market has seen more forests vanish, with Chinese and Vietnamese companies buying up vast swaths of land for banana and durian plantations, some of which appear to have encroached on national biodiversity protection forests such as Dong Hua Sao and Xe Pian. Similarly, the government has reportedly authorized some 110,000 hectares (272,00 acres) of protected land for use by foreign investors.
Quantifying the exact rate of deforestation across Laos's protected area network is tricky, because of the range of forest designations that are often poorly demarcated and frequently encroached on illegally by private investors.
Mongabay spoke with multiple forestry experts in relation to Laos, but none were prepared to speak on the record, citing the sensitivity of deforestation data and their ongoing work within the region. However, it was suggested that the drop in the deforestation rate between 2023 and 2024 was likely due to heavier-than-normal rains in 2024 that helped reduce forest fires and the opportunities for illegal logging, rather than any significant shift in policy or improvement in protections.
Myanmar's forests among conflict's casualties
Since Myanmar's military seized power from the civilian government on Feb. 1, 2021, unrest has spilled over into armed resistance as various factions, ranging from ethnic armed groups to former pro-democracy protesters, have taken up arms to oppose the junta.
The military's grip on power now faces an unprecedented threat as continued fighting has seen its territorial control shrink to an estimated 21% of the country, with ethnic armed groups controlling vast parts of Myanmar.
All factions are being forced to rely on the country's bountiful natural resources to varying degrees as the conflict rages on.
Despite this, GFW data show that deforestation dropped in Myanmar from 2023 to 2024, with more than 276,000 hectares (682,000 acres) of tree cover lost last year -- a slight decline from the nearly 307,000 hectares (759,000 acres) recorded as lost in 2023.
By far and away, Shan state was the worst-affected region in 2024, with more than 86,900 hectares (214,700 acres) of tree cover lost, although this is still the lowest annual total for Shan in more than 10 years. Unregulated mining operations have proliferated here since the 2021 coup. With strict control maintained by the United Wa State Army (UWSA), these mining operations have been difficult to monitor, but they recently came into the spotlight as allegations arose regarding the contamination of the Kok and Sai rivers, both of which feed into the Mekong River.
The rise of these mining concessions, as well as those seen expanding across Kachin state -- which lost some 25,300 hectares (62,500 acres) of tree cover in 2024 -- have long contributed to deforestation in these two states; they also leave a toxic legacy due to the environmentally destructive methods reportedly used.
The displacement of some 3.5 million people nationwide partly explains why deforestation has risen in places like Kayin state, on the Myanmar-Thai border, where many of those seeking shelter from the fighting have fled to, according to Saw Ma Bu Hto, land and forest program director at the Karen Environmental and Social Action Network (KESAN).
"Since the coup, many villagers have become internally displaced people, the fighting has sent a lot of those displaced into the forests," Saw Ma Bu Hto told Mongabay by phone. "There they have to clear forest to get wood for housing, for rotational farming to survive, and so it's not large areas individually, but it adds up."
Saw Ma Bu Hto added it's difficult to give a full assessment of the situation nationwide, given that exchanges between ethnic armed groups on forestry issues are limited. He said KESAN works closely with the Karen National Union's (KNU) forestry department, which has launched initiatives like the Salween Peace Park -- a roughly 670,000-hectare (1.66-million-acre) Indigenous-led protected area, along with the development of more than 20 wildlife sanctuaries, 80 reserve forests and hundreds of community forests.
"When the ethnic groups of Myanmar have upheld ceasefires with the central government, then we've seen that's when the forest suffers the worst," Saw Ma Bu Hto said. "Lots of it is lost to road construction, infrastructure projects like dams, massive monoculture plantations like cassava or maize or rubber. It's usually foreign investments that come in when there is no fighting."
Turning the tide in Thailand and Vietnam
While conservationists across much of the Mekong region have little room for optimism as forests vanish, the situation in both Thailand and Vietnam looks very different to that of their neighbors.
Thailand saw more than 140,000 hectares (346,000 acres) of tree cover lost over the course of last year. But of that, only 12,146 hectares (30,013 acres) of tree cover -- an equivalent of 8.5% of the total deforestation recorded in 2024 -- were lost across the country's protected area network that spans 10 million hectares (25 million acres).
But like many nations in the region, the environmental degradation in Thailand is also driven by agricultural expansion, the development of extractive industries, and infrastructure projects.
Mining in particular poses a threat to forests across the north of Thailand -- along with the Indigenous communities that depend on them. The Thai government's plans show that target areas for various mining operations overlap with much of the remaining forests, although in some cases, mines that have finished operations have since been rehabilitated, returning to forested states with the help of researchers. Permanent agriculture remains the top driver of deforestation in Thailand, according to GFW's analysis.
Thailand has pioneered solutions, notably within its growing multibillion-dollar agricultural sector, along with reforestation efforts that incorporate Indigenous communities and their expertise.
Steve Elliott, an associate professor in tropical plant ecology and wildlife conservation at Chiang Mai University, noted that Thailand stands out among its neighbors in part due to its 1989 logging ban.
"[It] took a while to kick in, but now seems well policed," Elliot told Mongabay via email. "No government has sought to reverse it since."
Elliott, who is also a co-founder and director of the university's Forest Restoration and Research Unit, identified 1994 as the tipping point when the trajectory of Thailand's reforestation work changed. To mark the golden jubilee of the late King Rama IX, what became known as the Five Million Rai Project saw members of the public and the business community donate millions of baht to support the reforestation of degraded conservation lands that spanned some 800,000 hectares (2 million acres).
"[This] inserted tree planting firmly into the national psyche," Elliott said. "Since then, tree planting for restoration and support for it from the private sector has surged and our little unit's research based advice and education/outreach programs have helped to technically support all those activities with sound advice."
Similarly sized losses of tree cover were seen in Vietnam over the course of 2024, when 128,000 hectares (316,000 acres) of tree cover were lost -- down roughly 5% from the 135,000 hectares (334,000 acres) lost in 2023, according to GFW. But only 2.8% of all deforestation recorded in 2024 occurred in the country's 2.5 million hectares (6.2 million acres) of protected areas.
Vietnam's rate of deforestation has fallen consistently every year, dropping now to levels not seen in nearly a decade, after a disastrous 2016 that preceded a steady annual decline.
"One major reason for this improvement is the national logging ban introduced in 2014, which was comprehensively enforced from 2017 through Vietnam's revised Forestry Law," said Pham Van Thong, deputy director of the Center for Technology and Nature Conservation (CTNC) in Vietnam.
"Since then, logging of natural forest has been banned entirely, and enforcement has been significantly strengthened," he told Mongabay by phone. "Articles 232 and 233 of the 2015 Penal Code provide strict penalties for illegal logging, including large fines and prison sentences. There have been high-profile cases in which individuals were heavily penalized for cutting trees, even single trees, from protected areas."
Illegal logging cases and timber smuggling operations have been met with stricter law enforcement over the past decade, and while this has pushed many Vietnamese loggers into neighboring Laos and Cambodia, it has helped to reduce pressure on Vietnam's own forests.
When asked about the comparatively low levels of deforestation seen in protected areas, Thong pointed to the recent shift of responsibility to individual forest rangers.
"Even one lost tree can affect their performance evaluation, salary raise, or promotion," he said. "This puts enormous pressure on them to strictly monitor and protect their areas."
This is reflected in Ea Sô Nature Reserve, a nearly 27,000-hectare (67,000-acre) protected area in the central highlands province of Đắk Lắk (Vietnam radically altered its provincial boundaries in 2025) where illegal logging persists at an organized level, leading to both mass arrests and the killing of a park ranger.
Despite this, Ea Sô lost just 8 hectares (20 acres) of tree cover in 2024, down from 11 hectares (27 acres) in 2023 -- a stark contrast to similar-sized protected areas in Cambodia and Laos, where thousands of hectares are lost each year.
"While deforestation still occurs, particularly in lower-priority protection forests, it is increasingly rare in special-use forests, national parks, and nature reserves," Thong said. "[These] are better funded, better monitored, and face more scrutiny."
Banner image: Deforestation linked to a Cambodian tycoon-owned iron ore mine inside the protected forest of Prey Lang Wildlife Sanctuary. Image by Gerald Flynn / Mongabay.
Editor's note: Mongabay used the Global Forest Watch platform to determine tree cover loss at the national level, but used satellite data published by the Global Land Analysis and Discovery Laboratory at the University of Maryland together with updated protected area data obtained from civil society groups to calculate tree cover loss in protected areas.
The format of this data and latitudinal variations across the region have resulted in some minor discrepancies within Mongabay's data as we chose to use an average pixel-per-square-meter value for each country analyzed to calculate deforestation inside protected areas based on the GLAD lab's data.