The role of democracy on deforestation has been analysed previously but the results have been contradictory. In this study, FAO statistics on forest area change in countries of the world from 2000 to 2010 were compared with three independent democracy indices. Democratic less-developed countries caused 55%–74% of the net global forest area decrease and non-democratic less-developed countries caused 66%–67% of the net forest increase. When the relative forest area change weighted with forest area in the country was plotted against the level of democracy in 121–131 less-developed countries the slopes of fitted linear regressions were statistically significant for all three democracy indices, linking positive forest area change and non-democracy. The potential mechanisms causing these trends are unclear but nevertheless the vigorous promotion of democratic methods by donors in high-income countries should be questioned.