By Joleen Murphy
Rainforest around half the size of Ireland was burned or cut down in 2020.
A leading climatologist says the report is very concerning.
Just under 10.5 million acres of forest was lost, a 12 percent increase on 2019.
Brazil recorded the most losses with around three times more than any other country, according to research from Global Forest Watch.
Climatologist Professor John Sweeney says we should be worried with this development.
"Forests contain fifty to ninety percent of the world's species and many of those are species which have been demonstrated to have considerable medicinal value.
"Some of the earlier cancer drugs for example came from the rainforest."
The report says forest fires in Australia, Siberia as well as the Amazon contributed to the reduction.
However it was also noted that in the Amazon, a large number of the forest was destroyed to make way for agriculture - namely beef farming.
Professor John Sweeney says this should raise alarm bells in Europe.
"We are the recipients of the cattle and the beef that is going to be created by that policy and I think there is a link with the Mercer agreement which Europe is going to import large amounts of South American beef."
Researchers have warned that the worst could be yet to come if protections in forests are slashed for economic benefits.
