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(CNN) --
The area of tropical forest destroyed in 2021 was enough to cover the entire island of Cuba, sending more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere than India does in an entire year from burning fossil fuels, according to a published analysis. this Thursday.
Some 11.1 million hectares (about 43,000 square miles) of forest were destroyed, predominantly by logging as well as fire, according to analysis by the World Resources Institute's Global Forest Observatory. in English) and the University of Maryland.
Some of those fires were deliberately set to clear land, and many were exacerbated by climate change.
The loss was less severe than in 2020, but deforestation is still occurring at an alarming rate in the tropics.
Of the area lost, 3.75 million hectares was primary tropical forest — sometimes called virgin tropical forest — which is equivalent to 10 football fields every minute, the WRI reported.
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Primary tropical forests, in particular, are crucial to the ecological balance of the planet, providing life-sustaining oxygen and hotbeds of biodiversity.
They are also rich in stored carbon, and when these forests are cut down or burned, they release carbon dioxide (CO2) into the atmosphere, contributing to global warming.
The destruction of primary tropical forests alone emitted 2.5 gigatonnes of CO2 last year, comparable to the emissions from burning fossil fuels in India, which is the world's third largest emitter of greenhouse gases.
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"The important thing is to understand that forests, especially tropical forests, are part of the global climate system," Frances Seymour, a member of the WRI, told CNN.
"So they're not mechanical carbon storage devices, they're actually influencing energy transfer and moisture content in the atmosphere in ways that affect precipitation, which affect global circulation patterns."
Fires are also playing an increasingly important role in the loss of tropical forests.
Seymour said there is a compounding effect between deforestation and climate change.
"When deforestation occurs, when forests are lost, not only is carbon added to the atmosphere, but precipitation patterns are also altered and local temperatures are increased so that, for example, the remaining forests are more vulnerable to fires and the hotter, drier conditions that climate change brings," Seymour said.
The analysis focused primarily on tropical forests—found in countries such as Brazil, Indonesia, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC)—because more than 96% of deforestation, or man-made removal of forest cover, is produces there.
The results are based on satellite images that assess the evolution of forest cover over time.
Loss of tree cover, or canopy, in the tropics often means that the forest has been destroyed.
In other countries, where logging is less common, it can mean that the treetops have been destroyed, as in the case of a fire, but the forest remains otherwise intact.
However, boreal forests - which are found in especially cold climates, such as in Russia, Canada and Alaska - experienced the greatest loss of tree cover on record last year.
More than 8 million hectares were lost, which represents an increase of almost a third compared to 2020
This is largely because Russia experienced particularly severe fires, losing 6.5 million hectares of tree cover.
These fires can cause what scientists call feedback loops, "in which increased fires lead to more carbon emissions, leading to a hotter, drier climate, which leads to more fires, and so on." says the analysis.
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These are the main conclusions
In the tropics, more than 40% of last year's forest loss occurred in Brazil.
About 1.5 million hectares of forest in the country were wiped off the map, especially in the Amazon.
This figure is more than three times higher than that of the DRC, which lost the second largest amount of forest.
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In Brazil, one of the main drivers of deforestation is agricultural expansion, which increased by 9% between 2020 and 2021.
The WRI analysis warns that forest loss is pushing the Amazon toward a tipping point, where it will no longer be able to serve as one of the world's most important carbon sinks and could even become a net emitter of CO2.
The Amazon is the largest tropical forest in the world and plays a crucial role in biodiversity, climate regulation and the provision of ecosystem services to millions of people who live in it.
If that tipping point is passed, the world's attempts to contain global warming to 1.5-2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels—as set out in the 2015 Paris Agreement—would be "out of the question," Seymour said.
Amid its sobering conclusions, the analysis gave some cause for optimism.
Indonesia and Malaysia, which have battled rampant deforestation for decades, have seen the amount of forest cover they lose annually decline for five years in a row.
In Indonesia, the amount of forest lost fell by 25% last year.
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This is a sign that corporate commitments and government actions are working, according to Hidayah Hamzah, Senior Director of Forest and Peatland Monitoring at WRI in Indonesia.
"This indicates that company commitments and government actions are clearly working," he told reporters at a briefing.
"Indonesia is headed in the right direction to meet some of its climate commitments."
However, Malaysia has already lost a fifth of its primary tropical forest since 2001 and up to a third since the 1970s.
Hamzah added that Indonesia's success is due in part to the government's moratorium on clearing licenses for primary forests and peatlands, as well as improved fire monitoring.
The so-called NDPE (No Deforestation, No Peatland, No Exploitation) policy now covers more than 80% of the palm oil refining capacity in Indonesia and Malaysia, which are the world's largest exporters of this oil, and more than 80% of the pulp and paper industry in Indonesia.
But the WRI also warns that with palm oil prices reaching a 40-year high, these countries' forests could come under increasing pressure.
Indonesia also lifted the temporary freeze on new permits for palm oil plantations.
Although there was an overall reduction in tree cover loss last year, the annual improvement is not consistent enough to meet global commitments, including the declaration signed by more than 140 countries at the Glasgow climate talks on last year to "halt and reverse forest loss by 2030".
Seymour also warned of the danger of relying too heavily on forests to offset greenhouse gas emissions, saying that companies and countries should use them to go beyond decarbonization efforts—drastically reducing the use of fossil fuels—or to offset emissions that are impossible to reduce with current technology.
The airline industry is one example, as the technology to fly carbon-neutral does not yet exist at scale.
"So, yes, we want them to reduce those emissions as quickly as possible and invest in new technologies that will enable carbon-free flying, but in the meantime, it's 'unreduced' emissions," he said.
"And offsetting them by buying carbon credits can provide a desperately needed source of finance to incentivize the protection of the world's forests."
ForestsClimate change