A report on the decline in the area of tropical forests in the world in 2022 is presented
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The area occupied by tropical forests in the world decreased last year by 10%. This resulted in 2.7 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide emissions. Such data are provided in the annual joint research Global Forest Watch of the World Resources Institute (WRI) and the University of Maryland. The share of Russia in the total reduction of forest areas is 19%.
In 2022, 4.1 million hectares of tropical primary forests were cut down or destroyed by fires in the world. This is 10% more than a year earlier, and in terms of area, these cuttings are comparable to the territory of Switzerland or to the loss of forests on the area of 11 football fields every minute.
The authors of the study note that the reduction in forest area has occurred, even despite the fact that in November 2021, at a meeting in Glasgow, the leaders of 145 countries of the world signed a special declaration, committing to protect forests and achieve a complete cessation of logging by 2030. “The question is: are we on track to achieve the goal of ending deforestation by 2030? The short answer is no,” said WRI spokesman Rod Taylor.
The loss of that much forest last year resulted in 2.7 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide emissions, the equivalent of India’s annual emissions from fossil fuels.
The most significant clearings of tropical virgin forests last year were made in Brazil, where their area is larger than in other countries. 1.8 million hectares of forest were cut down there. This is 14% more than a year earlier. And in the state of Amazonas, which contains more than half of Brazil’s virgin forests, clearing rates have nearly doubled in the past three years. At the same time, Brazil also signed a declaration in Glasgow in 2021. The researchers note that the period of increasing deforestation in Brazil “coincided” with the tenure of President Jair Bolsonaro, during which environmental protection measures were significantly weakened, an amnesty for illegal logging was announced, the rights of indigenous peoples living in the rainforest zone were weakened, etc. . P.
The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is far ahead of Brazil, where 513 hectares of forests have been cut down. Unlike Brazil, where timber is sold for sale, in the DRC, logging is carried out to expand the area under crops and produce charcoal for the household needs of the population. The top 5 in terms of deforestation also included Bolivia (386 thousand hectares), Indonesia (230 thousand hectares) and Peru (161 thousand hectares). Moreover, in Bolivia, fellings increased by 32% over the year, which was a record for this country. And Ghana became the absolute record holder in terms of the growth rate of cut down tropical forests, where 18 thousand hectares were destroyed in 2022, which is 71% more than a year earlier, which is a disaster for a country where there are so few such forests. The authors of the study also noted that the Indonesian authorities have made significant progress, where forest losses have decreased by 64% over the year.
A certain improvement is noted in the forest zone of the temperate climate zone and taiga, the destruction of which, primarily by fires, has decreased by 10% over the year. Russia has become the leader in reducing the rate of destruction of such forests. In 2022, the area of forests cut down or affected by fires decreased by 34% compared to 2021, which was a record year for the number of forest fires. However, despite the improvement in the situation, its share in the global indicator of the reduction of forest areas is 19%.
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