Football pitch of rainforest destroyed every six seconds: study
Published Jun 2, 2020 12:00 am
By Agence France-Presse
Vast tracts of pristine rainforest on three continents went up in smoke last year, with an area roughly the size of Switzerland cut down or burned to make way for cattle and commercial crops, researchers said Tuesday.
Rainforests harbour the richest diversity of wildlife on Earth (AFP / CARL DE SOUZA / MANILA BULLETIN)
Brazil accounted for more than a third of the loss, with the Democratic Republic of Congo and Indonesia a distant second and third, Global Forest Watch said in its annual report, based on satellite data.
The 38,000 square kilometres (14,500 square miles) destroyed in 2019 -- equivalent to a football pitch of old-growth trees every six seconds -- made it the third most devastating year for primary forests since the scientists began tracking their decline two decades ago.
"We are concerned that the rate of loss is so high despite all the efforts of different countries and companies to reduce deforestation," lead researcher Mikaela Weisse, Global Forest Watch project manager at the World Resources Institute (WRI), told AFP.
The total area of tropical forest levelled by fire and bulldozers worldwide last year was in fact three times higher -- but virgin rainforests, as they were once known, are especially precious.
Undisturbed by modern development, they harbour the richest diversity of wildlife on Earth, and keep huge stores of carbon locked in their woody mass.
When set ablaze, that carbon escapes into the atmosphere as planet-warming CO2.
"It will take decades or even centuries for these forests to get back to their original state" -- assuming, of course, that the land they once covered is left undisturbed, Weisse said.
The forest fires that engulfed parts of Brazil last year made front-page news as the climate crisis loomed large in the public eye.
But they were not the main cause of Brazil's loss of primary forest, the data showed.
Satellite images revealed many new "hot spots" of forest destruction. In the state of Para, for example, these fire-ravaged zones corresponded to reports of illegal land-grabs inside the Trincheira/Bacaja indigenous reserve.
Rainforests harbour the richest diversity of wildlife on Earth (AFP / CARL DE SOUZA / MANILA BULLETIN)
Brazil accounted for more than a third of the loss, with the Democratic Republic of Congo and Indonesia a distant second and third, Global Forest Watch said in its annual report, based on satellite data.
The 38,000 square kilometres (14,500 square miles) destroyed in 2019 -- equivalent to a football pitch of old-growth trees every six seconds -- made it the third most devastating year for primary forests since the scientists began tracking their decline two decades ago.
"We are concerned that the rate of loss is so high despite all the efforts of different countries and companies to reduce deforestation," lead researcher Mikaela Weisse, Global Forest Watch project manager at the World Resources Institute (WRI), told AFP.
The total area of tropical forest levelled by fire and bulldozers worldwide last year was in fact three times higher -- but virgin rainforests, as they were once known, are especially precious.
Undisturbed by modern development, they harbour the richest diversity of wildlife on Earth, and keep huge stores of carbon locked in their woody mass.
When set ablaze, that carbon escapes into the atmosphere as planet-warming CO2.
"It will take decades or even centuries for these forests to get back to their original state" -- assuming, of course, that the land they once covered is left undisturbed, Weisse said.
The forest fires that engulfed parts of Brazil last year made front-page news as the climate crisis loomed large in the public eye.
But they were not the main cause of Brazil's loss of primary forest, the data showed.
Satellite images revealed many new "hot spots" of forest destruction. In the state of Para, for example, these fire-ravaged zones corresponded to reports of illegal land-grabs inside the Trincheira/Bacaja indigenous reserve.