The destruction of tropical forests reaches record levels due to fires

The destruction of the primary tropical forests last year reached the highest level in at least 20 years, due to the fires fueled by climate change and the deterioration of the situation again in Brazil.

Heavy losses due to fires

The tropical areas lost 6.7 million hectares of initial forests last year, an area equivalent to the area of ​​Panama, at the highest level since the collection of data began in 2002 by the Global Forest Watch, which is run by the World Resources Institute (WRI), an American research institution, in cooperation with the University of Maryland.
The participating director of the observatory, Elizabeth Goldman, said that this number, which reflects an 80% increase from 2023, “is equivalent to the loss of 18 football fields per minute.”
Fires cause approximately half of these losses, for the first time ahead of agriculture.
These destructive areas are the equivalent of 3.1 billion tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, slightly more than India’s energy emissions.
“This level of forest destruction is absolutely unprecedented for more than 20 years of data,” Goldman said, adding, “This is a global warning.”

The effect of fires on biological diversity

The report focuses on the most vulnerable tropical forests that are of great importance for biological diversity, especially for their ability to absorb carbon from air. This includes the losses caused by all causes, from the removal of forests voluntarily, but also due to the action of accidental destruction and fires.
– “Understanding conditions” – The authors of the report indicated that the fires were due to “maximum conditions” that made them “more intense” and “they have difficulty controlling them.” 2024 was the most heated year in the world, due to the climate change caused by burning fossil fuels on a large scale and the natural “Ninho” phenomenon.
Although fires may be caused by natural causes, they often occur due to human activities in tropical forests in order to cleanse the lands.
The removal of forests to cleanse land for agriculture, which was historically the main cause of destruction, comes second but remains a major reason.
Brazil registered the destruction of 2.8 million hectares of initial forests last year, two thirds of which were attributed to fires, which often started to make room for soybean cultivation or livestock care.
However, the country recorded good results in 2023, as the forests benefited from the protection measures decided by the President Lula during the first year of his new term.
“This progress is threatened by agricultural expansion,” said Sarah Carter, a researcher at the International Resources Institute.

Brazilian Amazon region

The Brazilian Amazon region was the most affected, as the destruction of forests reached its highest level since 2016.
The numbers of the Global Resources Institute contradict those published by the Brazilian Monitoring Network “Mapbiomas” on May 16, which reported a sharp decrease in the removal of forests, but its data does not include fires.
Forest protection is high on the Brazilian Presidency’s priority list of the Thirty Parties Conference (“Cope 30”), the main annual climate conference organized by the United Nations, scheduled to be held in Bilim between November 10 and the twenty -first of it.
– “A new phenomenon” – neighboring Bolivia ranks second in the list of the most affected countries, with three times the destroyed areas last year, also due to the huge fires.
The authors of the report notes that most of these fires “aim to remove lands to establish farms on an industrial scale.”
The results came in conflicting places, with an improvement in Indonesia and Malaysia, but with a clear deterioration in the Congo and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
The pressures on the forests historically come from the exploitation of four products called “the big four”: palm oil, soybeans, cows meat and wood.
But the improvement in some sectors – such as palm oil – coincided with the emergence of new problems, for example, to avocado in Mexico, or cocoa and cocoa.
Consequently, the reasons for the removal of forests will not necessarily remain “the same,” according to the director of the forest program at the International Institute of Resources Rod Taylor, who calls for a comprehensive approach to the topic. “We are also witnessing a new phenomenon related to the mining industry and basic minerals.”