Despite the promises of the vast majority of world leaders, tropical rainforests across the planet continue to lose huge areas due to human actions, despite the enormous damage to Earth's climate and the environment.
According to a report in the British newspaper The Guardian, during 2022, rainforests around the world lost an area equal to the size of Switzerland. This is an area of 4.1 million hectares. The data means that every minute over the past year, the equivalent of 11 football fields were cut down in these forests. This represents a 10% increase in deforestation compared to 2021. The data comes from a report by the University of Maryland in the United States and data from the World Resource Institute.
In the stark report, these two research bodies warn that by continuing to deforest the rainforest, humanity is destroying with its own hands one of the most effective factors in stopping the greenhouse effect and climate change on Earth. Deforestation also causes enormous loss of biodiversity and harms indigenous tribes living in forested areas. .
It is important to note that the deforestation of rainforests is done to use their land for various agricultural purposes, and is the second most powerful factor in terms of greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere, with only the burning of fossil-derived fuels (burning oil and oil products and gas) emitting more greenhouse gases into the Earth's atmosphere.
Another serious point mentioned in the report has to do with the international goal of all countries in the world to prevent the average rise of the earth's temperature by one and a half degrees more than before the Industrial Revolution.
Forest fire in Siberia during heat wave // Photo: Reuters // ,
This is an important international goal because an increase above this average will generate extreme weather upheavals that will harm hundreds of millions and perhaps even billions of the planet's inhabitants, not to mention the huge damage to infrastructure and land caused by such an increase.
However, in order to prevent such an alarming increase, humanity must, among other things, stop the deforestation of the rainforest. Such a goal was announced by 100 world leaders, including Xi Jinping and Joe Biden, at the UN climate conference. However, the data on the ground show that in practice the countries of the world are unable to meet this goal.
The report cites the countries that have contributed the most to rainforest deforestation and lists Brazil, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Bolivia as the largest forest deforesters on the planet during 2022.
Another problematic country is Ghana, one of the world's cocoa producers, where deforestation continues to increase significantly, despite the fact that in absolute figures this is a small deforestation compared to the countries mentioned earlier. On the other hand, Indonesia and Malaysia have succeeded in dramatically reducing deforestation in their territory, due to determined and consistent action by the governments of these countries.
Not just tropical forests
Another important area the report focuses on is the Boreal Forests, huge forests of coniferous trees found in Russia's giant taiga. The taiga is a northern forest belt composed mainly of coniferous trees such as spruce and pine. These forests were the scene of huge fires in 2021, causing extensive destruction. Here, the report notes that the rate of fires has slowed, but there is no indication that there is a positive trend of regrowth of these forests in this area.
Responding with great concern to these figures is Inger Andersen, the UN's head of environment. Andersen called for an increase in the economic price countries pay for the carbon emissions they cause. This, she said, would provide a significant economic incentive to stop these excision processes.
Tyga Forest Fire in Canada,
She also called for payments to countries where rainforests are being deforested to encourage them to stop the damage. According to a UN calculation made last April, the real payment to stop deforestation is $130 billion a year, a huge sum even for large and economically strong countries.
A forest fire in the Amazon in Brazil // Photo: AP,
"The existence of forests is really critical to the preservation of the planet and our well-being as humanity. Stopping deforestation in this respect is a vital activity that needs to be done quickly to reduce the damage done to the planet," Andersen said.
Andersen added: "Stopping deforestation and rehabilitating is not only a question of stopping carbon emissions into the atmosphere, but it is also protecting the planet's biodiversity as well as working to preserve the hydrological cycle of weather, which will also prevent landslides, soil erosion and flooding. Beyond that, such a decision also protects the local populations that live in these forests."
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