Three Tropical Forest Science Panels Unite to Confront Deforestation Crisis

The world's three largest tropical forest research bodies — covering the Amazon, the Congo Basin, and Borneo — convened together for the first time under the UN's Sustainable Development Solutions Network to coordinate a shared scientific and policy response to accelerating forest loss. The session, moderated by Lee White of the Science Panel for the Congo Basin, surfaced alarming data from all three basins and produced concrete proposals for joint action, from biome-wide financing to a south-south student exchange program.

• Amazon declared "very close" to irreversible tipping point, with 18% of forest lost, 38% degraded, and deforestation driving 75% of the risk
• Congo Basin monitoring infrastructure has collapsed from 500 hydrometric stations to just 10, even as the basin stores 30 billion tons of carbon in peatlands alone
• Borneo assessment report covering seven sustainability clusters set for COP31 launch in Antalya, Turkey, in November 2026
• GEF acknowledges $6 billion in fragmented forestry investments over 30 years, pivots to biome-wide knowledge platforms
• Scientists propose a "Tropical Erasmus" student exchange and unified Science Panel Network for the Tropics

The basics: Carlos Nobre, Co-chair of the Science Panel for the Amazon, presented the panel's second assessment report, "The Connectivity of the Amazon for a Living Planet," released at COP30 in Belém. The Amazon spans nine countries and recycles 40% of its own rainfall, exporting massive water vapor flows that sustain agriculture across South America.