Although some countries have managed to stop and reduce their rates deforestation, the overall balance remains discouraging. Those with more forests increase the speed at which they are destroyed. The world lost a larger area of rainforest than Switzerland or the Netherlands in 2022Much of it was destroyed to make room for livestock and agricultural products, according to a study of satellite data conducted by a specialist agency.
This deforested area is nearly the equivalent of a football field, with mature tropical trees cut down or burned every five seconds.day and night, and that represents 10 percent more than in the previous year, according to the study’s author, the World Resources Institute (WRI).
Tropical forests cleared and destroyed last year released 2.7 billion tons of CO2 into the atmosphere, equivalent to India’s fossil fuel emissions, It’s the world’s most populous country, according to WRI’s Global Forest Watch.
Brazil accounts for 43 percent of all cleared forests, while the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Bolivia are responsible for 13 percent and 9 percent, respectively.
41,000 square kilometers of land devastated worldwide last year, 2022 is the fourth most destructive year for primary forests in two decades.
unkept promises
It so happens that this increase in deforestation occurs One year after world leaders pledged to halt and reverse forest loss by 2030 at the COP26 summit in Glasgow in 2021.
“Since the turn of the century, we’ve seen real bleeding in some of the world’s most important forest ecosystems, despite years of efforts to reverse this trend,” said Mikaela Weisse, Director of WRI’s Global Forest Monitoring. To inform.
“We are rapidly losing one of our most effective tools in the fight against climate change.protect biodiversity and support the health and livelihoods of millions of people.”
On the planet as a whole, vegetation and soil have consistently absorbed about 30 percent of CO2 pollution since 1960, even as those emissions doubled.
“We are rapidly losing one of our most effective tools in the fight against climate change”
About 1.6 billion people, almost half of whom are members of indigenous groups, are directly dependent on forest resources. for their food and livelihood.
Deforestation in Brazil has increased dramatically during the four-year rule of far-right President Jair Bolsonaro, rising 15 percent last year compared to 2021.
The Bolsonaro administration has repealed environmental policies, condoned illegal deforestation, and weakened protections for the rights of indigenous peoples who have proven to be effective guardians of healthy forests.
President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who was sworn in earlier this year, pledged to end deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon by 2030, but experts say it will face many challenges to do so.
The confluence of climate change and deforestation, scientists say Accelerated the Amazon basin’s transition from tropical forest to savannaIt can profoundly change the climate, not just in South America, but all over the world.
Tropical rainforests are major ‘scavengers’ of carbon that would otherwise be found in the atmosphere. About 90 billion tons of CO2 are stored in Amazon Basin forests, twice the global annual emissions from all sources.
“Stopping and reversing forest loss is one of the most cost-effective mitigation options available to us today,” said Frances Seymour, WRI Senior Research Fellow for Forestry.
Republic of the Congo: deforestation and poverty
Over the past year, high rates of primary deforestation continued in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). More than half a million hectares destroyed in 2022According to the report.
Unlike Brazil, the main drivers of this deforestation in that African country are, subsistence agriculture and small scale charcoal production from cutting and burnt woodthis is nothing but a reflection of the poverty of the country.
The $500 million deal he signed two years ago to protect the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s forests was derailed by an auction of oil and gas exploration permits.
Moreover, The government has also announced that it will lift a moratorium on new logging privileges.All this paints an even more worrying picture.
Bolivia: up 32%
Meanwhile, Bolivia experienced the third largest primary forest loss (almost 4,000 km2) in 2022, with a 32% increase in deforestation compared to 2021.
“Most of the casualties occurred in protected areas.“The Global Forest Watch report covers the last patches of primary forest in the country.”
Cocoa production, gold mining and fires They were responsible for this situation.
Just over five percent of global tropical forest loss last year occurred in Indonesia (2,300 square kilometers), where deforestation levels have fallen more than fourfold since 2016.
Other countries in the “top ten” for worldwide tropical forest loss last year are Peru (3.9 percent), Colombia (3.1), Laos (2.3), Cameroon (1.9), Papua New Guinea (1.8 percent) ) and Malaysia (1,7). .
The rest of the world accounted for slightly less than 15 percent of forests lost in 2022.
Reference work: https://research.wri.org/gfr/latest-analysis-deforestation-trends
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