43 million hectares of tropical rainforest destroyed: study by the environmental organization WWF

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Rainforest in Brazil after fire (archive photo from August 2020)

Photo: CARL DE SOUZA / AFP

According to calculations by the environmental organization WWF, 43 million hectares of tropical rainforest have been destroyed in the past few years in 24 particularly badly affected areas.

The WWF announced on Wednesday in Berlin that this is based on satellite data from 2004 to 2017.

The largest loss occurs in the Amazon in Brazil, Colombia, Peru, Bolivia, Venezuela and Guyana with 18.3 million hectares.

To put it into perspective: The area of ​​Germany is 35.7 million hectares.

The WWF emphasized that consumers in Germany were also partly to blame for the deforestation.

»For the cultivation of feed soy, cocoa and beef, which is imported into the EU, forests are often destroyed.

Around a sixth of all food traded in the EU contributes to deforestation in the tropics, ”the press release said.

"Instead of just pointing the finger at governments and farmers in deforestation hotspots, we also have to touch our own noses," said Susanne Winter, the forest program manager at WWF Germany.

She went on to explain that rainforests are a health precaution for humans and nature.

For example, they store carbon and are an important habitat for animal and plant species.

"We urgently need to stop deforestation, otherwise life as we know it will stop," Winter was quoted as saying.

The so-called deforestation hotspots also include forests in Borneo (Indonesia, Malaysia), Paraguay, Argentina, Madagascar and Sumatra.

Almost half of the remaining forests in such hotspots are also severely fragmented, for example by roads or arable land.

"This makes the forest more susceptible to drought and fire and drives out the animal species that live there."

What the French President wants to do against deforestation

French President Emmanuel Macron has again spoken out in favor of growing soy crops in Europe.

"A further dependence on Brazilian soy would support the deforestation of the Amazon," he wrote on Twitter on Tuesday evening after a visit to organic farmers in the community of Tilly.

“We are consistent in our ecological ambitions, we are fighting to produce soy in Europe.” Macron had previously called for “protein sovereignty” for Europe.

Europe imports masses of soy from Latin America - especially from Brazil.

A study published in the US journal "Science" in 2020 for the first time quantifies the complicity of European consumers in the deforestation of the rainforest in Brazil: around a fifth of the annual exports of soy and beef from Brazil to the European Union are related to illegal deforestation in the Amazon and in the Cerrado savannah.

• You can read an analysis of the dispute over soy imports here: What our bratwurst has to do with the rainforest

• A report about the Brazilian slash and burn and President Bolsonaro can be found here: 2248 fires - in a month

Despite a ban on clearing and slashing and massive military action, large areas of the rainforest in the Amazon region were on fire again in 2020.

Tens of thousands of fires were counted in August and September alone.

“Slash and burn is currently officially prohibited, but it continues unchecked.

The environmental authorities have been disempowered, police authorities hardly control and violations have no consequences, «Juliana Miyazaki of the Society for Threatened Peoples commented on the fires in Brazil.

»The forest fires are mostly triggered by illegal clearing.

It is deforested, the wood dries, then a fire is started.

This frees up new areas for economic activities such as agribusiness. "

Environmentalists blame the politics of right-wing Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro for this.

The destruction of the Amazon forest by fire has increased dramatically since he began his tenure in January 2019.

Bolsonaro doubts man's responsibility for climate change.

He drastically cut the financial and human resources for environmental protection. 

The Amazon rainforest is the largest tropical rainforest on earth.

Huge amounts of the climate-damaging greenhouse gas carbon dioxide (CO₂) are stored in it.

Therefore it is of great importance for the world climate.

It also contains a huge variety of species.

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oka / dpa