About 38,000 km2 of primary forests were destroyed last year, which is equivalent to one football pitch every six seconds. the vast expanses of the Virgin Forests rose
About 38,000 km2 of primary forests were destroyed last year, which is equivalent to one football pitch every six seconds.
Vast swaths of rainforest disappeared in smoke in 2019, the size of Switzerland, with Brazil accounting for more than one-third of those losses, according to a study released Tuesday.
The Democratic Republic of Congo and Indonesia are in second and third place for the loss of these forests, which have been destroyed to make way for cultivation or plantations, according to Global Forest Watch’s annual report, based on satellite data.
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In the last year, around 38,000 km2 have been destroyed, which is equivalent to one football field every six seconds, making 2019 the third year of the most destructive rainforests in two decades.
“We are concerned that the rate of loss is so high, despite all the efforts of various countries and companies to reduce deforestation,” warns Mikaela Weisse, who coordinates Global Forest Watch for the American think-tank World Resources Institute (WRI).
new “hotspots” of deforestation
The total area of tropical forests destroyed by fires and bulldozers worldwide in 2019 is actually three times larger, but primary forests are especially valuable. They are home to a great diversity of species on Earth and store huge amounts of CO2 which contributes to global warming once it is released.
“It will take decades, even centuries, for these forests to return to their original state,” assuming the countries targeted remain peaceful, Mikaela Weisse told AFP. The forest fires that ravaged parts of Brazil last year made headlines, but according to satellite data, they are not the main cause of deforestation.
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many new “hotspots” of deforestation have appeared. In the state of Para, for example, they correspond to illegal land seizures in the Trincheira/Bacaja indigenous reserve. And this happened before the government proposed a new law that eases the development of mining, oil or gas in these protected areas, as well as intensive agriculture. Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro gave the green light to this law in February.
For Frances Seymour, WRI, this is not only unfair to the people who live in these forests in Brazil, but also a sign of poor management.
“We know that deforestation is less in indigenous areas,” she explains. “A growing body of evidence suggests that legal recognition of indigenous land rights ensures better forest protection.”
Covid-19, a possible aggravating factor
The Covid-19 epidemic could make matters worse, not only in Brazil, particularly affected, but everywhere it can weaken the already very low application – the power of the peoples who live in the tropical forests. “Around the world we have heard of higher levels of logging, mining and illegal poaching,” Frances Seymour said.
In 2019, Bolivia experienced unprecedented forest loss, 80% more than the previous record year, due to fires in and around the rainforest, primarily due to the cultivation and cultivation of soybeans.
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Indonesia, however, saw a 5% decline in its total area of destroyed forests, 3,240 km2, for the third consecutive year, an area almost three times smaller than in 2016, the peak year. “Indonesia is one of the few positive points in the tropical deforestation data in recent years,” noted Frances Seymour in a blog post recently. Tropical ecosystems are vulnerable to exploitation and climate change.
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Other countries that have experienced the greatest loss of primary forests include Peru, Malaysia, Colombia, Laos, Mexico and Cambodia.
Date of update: June 4, 2020, 09:58
Categories: Optical Illusion
Source: newstars.edu.vn