Eritrea Forest Area

Eritrea’s forest area has contracted steadily over the 32‑year series recorded by the World Bank, falling from an all‑time peak of 11.29 percent of land in 1993 to a trough of 8.57 percent in 2025, placing the country 170th globally. The decline represents a loss of roughly 2.72 percentage points, or a 24.1 percent reduction of its forest cover, reflecting persistent pressures from agricultural expansion, fuel‑wood demand and limited reforestation capacity. By comparison, neighboring Uzbekistan reports a slightly higher forest share of 8.67 percent, while Turkmenistan stands at 8.78 percent, underscoring that Eritrea’s forest depletion is marginally more severe than that of its Central Asian peers. The downward trajectory aligns with broader regional trends of land‑use change in arid and semi‑arid environments, where policy constraints and resource scarcity hinder forest regeneration. Continued investment in sustainable land‑management practices and community‑based afforestation could modestly reverse the decline, but absent such interventions the forest share is likely to remain near its current low level.