Deforestation in Brazil in 2019 represents more than 1/3 of the world's tropical forest loss, says study.
The area of primary green biomes that has been suppressed on the planet is almost the size of Switzerland and 3% larger than in 2018.
The total loss of tropical forests worldwide in 2019 was almost 38 km2 (194 x 194 km). This was the third largest area of forest destroyed since 2002, surpassed only by the devastation caused by fires in 2016 and 2017, especially in Brazil.
The data were published by the World Resources Institute (World Resources Institute WRI), through the Global Forest Surveillance program (Global Forest Watch (GFW). “The level of forest loss we saw in 2019 is unacceptable. We are on the wrong track,” declared Frances Seymour, a researcher at the WRI and participant in the GFW program.
The program manager, Mikaela Weisse, was already lamenting in 2019, when the 2018 deforestation figures were released, that the commitments made by governments and companies to halve the loss of tropical forests by the end of 2020 would be unlikely to materialize.
“The rate of devastation of primary rainforests last year is equivalent to a football field every 6 seconds,” writes Weisse in an article published yesterday, highlighting the importance of such biomes for biodiversity and carbon storage.
Researchers at GFW estimate that the loss of primary rainforest in 2019 meant the release of 2 billion tons of CO2 into the atmosphere, equivalent to the total emissions of all road vehicles in a typical year in the United States.
According to Seymour, the prospects for a decrease in deforestation in 2020 are far from optimistic, as long as the Covid-19 pandemic persists. Mobility restrictions and budgetary constraints on countries facing the post-pandemic economic crisis are likely to hinder policies aimed at curbing devastation, the researcher states.
Globally, in intertropical zones (including non-primary forests), tree cover loss was 120 km2 last year. Since 2000, the planet has lost about 10% of its tropical tree cover.
In 2002, just two countries—Brazil and Indonesia—accounted for 71% of the total loss of primary tropical forests. By 2018, a clear shift in the distribution of global deforestation was noticeable: Brazil and Indonesia together represented 46% of the total, while countries like Colombia, Ivory Coast, Ghana, and Congo saw their loss rates increase sharply.
The world lost 37.636 km2 of primary tropical forests last year, of which 13.610 km2 were in Brazil, or 36% of the total. top ten The countries that have lost the most primary tropical forests are: Brazil, Congo, Indonesia, Colombia, Bolivia, Malaysia, Peru, Madagascar, Papua New Guinea, and Cameroon.
The program Global Forest Watch This study uses data from researchers at the University of Maryland (USA), who process satellite images of vegetation loss in tropical forests worldwide. This data shows that a large portion of the tree cover loss is in reforested areas or non-primary forests.
Other analyses present different figures. Two UN agencies released a report last month stating that global deforestation has averaged around 100 km2 per year since 2015. They worked with official data submitted by each country.
Ancient forests, also known as primary forests, are crucial for capturing atmospheric carbon dioxide and maintaining biodiversity, but once destroyed, they can take decades to regenerate, scientists say.
This destruction is carried out for various purposes: clearing forests to make way for agricultural activities, mining, road construction, and other infrastructure. Much of the clearing is done through burning, which invariably spreads out of control, especially in Brazilian forests.
In 2019, Brazil recorded a high number of wildfires, particularly in the month of August. Although it was a dry season, spontaneous fires are rare; therefore, these are criminal actions by land grabbers, carried out with the complicity of federal authorities.
In fact, since the current president took office in early 2019, a state policy has been implemented to promote mining and agribusiness activities, to the detriment of environmental preservation and the protection of indigenous lands, especially in the Amazon. Disregard for existing environmental laws is, in practice, guaranteed by the Ministry of the Environment.
Compared to 2018, the total loss of primary forests in Brazil in 2019 was slightly higher, at around 14 km2. Many of the fires occurred on land that had already been deforested in previous years, aimed at preparing the land for agriculture and livestock farming. Only 20% of the fires destroyed old-growth forests, reports Mikaela Weisse.
Conversely, as data from monitoring programs show, there has been an increase in deforestation to prepare areas for agriculture. "Although the overall trend in primary forest loss has been only a small [annual] increase, we believe that deforestation is getting worse," says Weisse.
In neighboring Bolivia, wildfires were the main cause of the significant increase in deforestation in 2019, which totaled 3 km2, almost double the amount recorded in 2018.
The Andean country currently ranks fourth globally in deforestation, behind Brazil, Congo, and Indonesia; the latter showing a decline for the third consecutive year: 5% less primary forest area compared to 2018. The Southeast Asian country recorded a high number of fires in 2019, but like Brazil, most of them occurred on previously degraded land.
In Colombia, there was also a decline in deforestation; the area of destroyed cover was the same as that recorded in 2016. A peace agreement between the government and the FARC guerrilla group led to the evacuation of areas, which enabled the proliferation of illegal logging, causing high losses of primary forest in 2017 and 2018.
In Central Africa, the Democratic Republic of Congo recorded “sustainable losses,” according to Elizabeth Goldman, research director of the GFW program. Although deforestation is linked to subsistence agriculture, there are signs that agribusiness and large-scale mining are encroaching on forest areas. Even though the area of forest cover lost in 2019 increased only slightly compared to 2018, it doubled compared to 2012.
In West Africa, Ghana and Ivory Coast showed a considerable decrease in deforestation; the former recorded its lowest level since 2014, and the latter regressed to an annual rate comparable to that of 2005. The devastation in these two countries was largely driven by increased cocoa production, fueled by global market demand.
An agreement signed between governments and producers in the sector is encouraging for curbing deforestation, "although it is a little early to say for sure because [the slight reduction achieved] was only seen in one year," Weisse assesses.
https://www.wri.org/blog/2020/06/global-tree-cover-loss-data-2019
https://www.wri.org/blog/2019/04/world-lost-belgium-sized-area-primary-rainforests-last-year
http://www.fao.org/news/story/en/item/1276858/icode/
* This is an opinion article, the responsibility of the author, and does not reflect the opinion of Brasil 247.