The rainforest continues to shrink dramatically. Worldwide. Environmentalists fear that there is now a "corona effect"
Rio de Janeiro (dpa) - In the wake of the spreading Covid-19 pandemic, the destruction of the tropical forest has increased massively worldwide. This emerges from a study published on Thursday by the WWF environmental foundation, for which it evaluated satellite data from the University of Maryland.
"Everything indicates that we are dealing with a corona effect in the exploding forest destruction," says Christoph Heinrich, Nature Conservation Director at WWF Germany. The area of the tropical forests in the 18 countries examined shrank in the "Corona Month" March by 6500 square kilometers, which is about seven times the area of Berlin.
According to the WWF analysis, this means an increase in forest destruction by an average of 150 percent compared to previous years. In March, Indonesia was most affected with more than 1,300 square kilometers, the Congo with 1,000 square kilometers and Brazil with 950 square kilometers. The non-governmental Brazilian Amazon research institute Imazon also registered a cleared area of 529 square kilometers in Amazonia for April - an increase of 171 percent compared to April last year, as Imazon confirmed the German press agency.
According to the Belém-based Imazon, many of the world's largest rainforest deforestation may have been done by intruders who do not yet own land titles. Scientist Carlos Souza, who is studying the change in the Amazon forest, said: "First they take up the public space and then they try to legally get these areas." While the corona crisis is restricting environmental officials in their work in Brazil and other countries, illegal loggers and looters of other resources are simply continuing. According to WWF information, people use the forest in many places as a source of income due to job cuts.
Financial and technical support could help contain the destruction. As with the devastating fires in Amazonia last year, when leading European politicians threatened to burst the agreement between the EU and the common South American market of Mercosur, international trade relations are one of the key levers. According to WWF figures, around a sixth of all food traded in the European Union contributes to deforestation in the tropics. Christoph Heinrich: "The protection of forests is a common task that no one can avoid."
