The decline of natural forest in developing regions has been considerable between 1980 and 1990. Total losses in the tropics have been greatest in Latin America and the Caribbean, followed by those in Africa and in Asia and the Pacific. Industrialization, population growth and related agricultural expansion, and forest product trade are the main driving forces in reducing forest cover in these regions. Rates of deforestation are of particular concern in Asia and the Pacific, and in the highland states of West Asia. In West Asia, the opening up of woodlands has caused increased susceptibility to erosion and land degradation in general.

In Africa, remaining forests are under great pressure from agricultural expansion and the use of wood as fuel, with pressure likely to increase with rising population, continued dependence on subsistence agriculture, and an absence of alternatives to wood as fuel. Declining productivity, increased climatic variability, and greater susceptibility to flooding have also been attributed in part to accelerated deforestation on the African continent.

Forest area is currently rather stable in Europe and North America, as it has been for the past century. However, forests in Europe suffer from acidification, and the boreal (northern) forests in Siberia are being heavily exploited. The removal of old-growth forests raises protests in North America and Europe.