The world’s rainforests are vanishing. In this one country, they’re growing back.

A view of Arenal Volcano in La Fortuna, Costa Rica. | Sergi Reboredo/VW Pics/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

For several decades now, the story of the world’s rainforests has been the same tragic one: These iconic, animal-filled ecosystems are getting cut down to make way for farms and ranches, roads and mines. And it doesn’t appear to be changing. In 2024, the most recent year of global forest data, the tropics lost a record 16.6 million acres of primary fores , largely to fires and agriculture.