Ngerulmud
2 km around Ngerulmud
Air quality now
AQI 48
78.9%
tree cover
Healthy tree cover
Oceania · air quality report · 1 city
Airleaf measures 1 city in Palau. Ngerulmud reads AQI 48 right now.
Updated . Lower is better on the US EPA index: 0–50 is Good, above 300 is Hazardous. Measured by Airleaf.
Palau
Deforestation · 2001–2025
Since 2001, Palau has lost about 559 hectares of forest (about 780 football pitches): 1.9% of the forest it had in 2000. The biggest cause was logging (35%), after which forest can grow back. About 123 hectares (22%) was deforestation: forest cleared for good for farms, mines or towns.
Hectares of forest lost each year
| Year | Cleared for good | Can grow back | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2001 | 9 ha | 28 ha | 37 ha |
| 2002 | 6 ha | 57 ha | 63 ha |
| 2003 | 2 ha | 14 ha | 15 ha |
| 2004 | 7 ha | 19 ha | 25 ha |
| 2005 | 5 ha | 32 ha | 37 ha |
| 2006 | 4 ha | 24 ha | 28 ha |
| 2007 | 11 ha | 62 ha | 73 ha |
| 2008 | 9 ha | 46 ha | 55 ha |
| 2009 | 1 ha | 23 ha | 25 ha |
| 2010 | 5 ha | 22 ha | 27 ha |
| 2011 | 2 ha | 21 ha | 24 ha |
| 2012 | 3 ha | 20 ha | 23 ha |
| 2013 | 2 ha | 12 ha | 14 ha |
| 2014 | 24 ha | 30 ha | 54 ha |
| 2015 | under 1 ha | under 1 ha | under 1 ha |
| 2016 | under 1 ha | under 1 ha | under 1 ha |
| 2017 | under 1 ha | under 1 ha | under 1 ha |
| 2018 | under 1 ha | 2 ha | 2 ha |
| 2019 | under 1 ha | 7 ha | 7 ha |
| 2020 | 1 ha | 6 ha | 7 ha |
| 2021 | under 1 ha | 2 ha | 2 ha |
| 2022 | 6 ha | 3 ha | 9 ha |
| 2023 | 25 ha | 3 ha | 27 ha |
| 2024 | under 1 ha | under 1 ha | 2 ha |
| 2025 | under 1 ha | 2 ha | 3 ha |
The worst year was 2007, when about 73 hectares of forest were lost.
Also: towns and roads, farms, pasture and plantations, mining and energy, unknown causes.
Causes for 2025 are estimates, based on what caused forest loss in the same places up to 2024.
Source: Hansen/UMD/Google/USGS/NASA, Global Forest Change (GFC-2025-v1.13); causes: WRI/Google DeepMind drivers of forest loss; both CC BY 4.0, summed by Airleaf for each area. How it's measured
90.8% of Palau was forested as of 2024, against a 30% benchmark. That already clears the benchmark — the city reports above show where cover is still thin locally. Source: World Bank (FAO).
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Palau
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Frequently asked
Airleaf measures 1 city in Palau. Ngerulmud reads AQI 48 right now.
About 559 ha from 2001 to 2025, 2% of the forest it had in 2000, from the University of Maryland's yearly satellite maps of forest loss. 123 ha of it was cleared for good, for farms, mines or towns.
Each city's reading is the US EPA air quality index, from ground monitoring stations where one has reported recently nearby, and from the CAMS atmospheric model elsewhere; each city's report says which. Tree cover is measured over the same 2 km radius in every city, so the cities compare like for like.
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