Europe loses Cyprus-sized green space in five years

A five-year investigation by 10 European media outlets, including Le Monde, The Guardian, and Norway’s NRK, has found that Europe lost an area of natural land and farmland equivalent to the size of Cyprus between 2018 and 2023.

The cross-border project, published under the title “Europe from green to grey,” used satellite imagery to track the rapid conversion of green spaces to construction sites. The findings, released in October 2025, confirm that approximately 1,500 square kilometres of nature and agricultural land—an area larger than the Faroe Islands—are paved over or built on each year, a significant increase from previous rates.

Turkey accounted for the largest absolute loss of natural and agricultural land, while Norway, on a per capita basis, converted the most green space for development.

Satellite images revealed a range of large-scale projects encroaching on nature, including a Portuguese forest cleared for a golf course and luxury housing, a French forest sacrificed for a new lake development, and a Turkish bay filled with concrete for a yacht-building facility. In Germany, Tesla’s expansion led to the felling of half a million trees, and on the Greek island of Corfu, a five-star hotel project consumed a large natural area. Bulgaria also saw a major forest cleared for 834,000 solar panels, highlighting the environmental cost of some renewable energy projects.

The investigation further noted a surge in the construction of massive warehouses across Europe, driven by the growth of e-commerce and logistics demand, particularly from companies like Amazon.