The Land lost an area of yeshe goes virgin tropical equivalent to a football field every five seconds in 2022, and more than half of that destruction occurred in Brazil and bolivianaccording to a study published this Tuesday.
The total area burned or cleared, more than 41,000 km2, equals the area of Switzerland or the Netherlands. The study of World Resources Institute (WRI) He specifies that these are native and mature trees, and that the figure represents an increase of 10% compared to the previous year.
(Green growth in the Amazon would attract billions of dollars.)
Prepared from satellite images, the report highlights the situation in the Amazon basin. Losses in Brazil represented 43% of the total, in Bolivia 9%. The Democratic Republic ofthe Congo (DRC) lost 13%. In the case of Brazil, deforestation increased 15% in 2022 Over the previous year.
He Jair Bolsonaro’s conservative government was heavily criticized by ecologists in the last four years for its environmental policies. His successor, the leftist Luiz Inácio Lula da Silvapromised to make the defense of the amazon one of its axes.
(The IDB plan to help finance projects in the Amazon).
Defenders of the economic development of the South American giant argue that much of this deforestation occurs on private land. Lyou Scientists warn that if the Amazon basin were to become savannah, that is, a surface without trees, the consequences for the planet are unknown.
The Amazon retains in its jungles some 90,000 tons of CO2, which represents twice the world’s annual emissions. In the case of Boliviaiathe loss of tropical forest was equivalent to about 4,000 km2an increase of 32% compared to 2021. “Most of the loss occurred within protected areas, which cover the last regions of primary forest in the country.“, the report explains.
(Traceability, Colombia’s palm task).
cocoa production, gold extraction and fires were the main causes of this burning or felling.
Deforestation.
A planetary ‘hemorrhage’
He WRIbased in Washington, has its satellite information platform dedicated to the control of deforestation, Global Forest Watch (GFW). “We are losing one of our most effective tools to combat climate change, protect biodiversity and protect the health and livelihoods of millions of people.”declared to the press Mikaela Weisse, director of GFW.
(These are the scenarios for the price of palm oil in 2023.)
Tropical forests destroyed last year released 2.7 billion tons of CO2 into the atmosphere, equivalent to the fossil fuel emissions of India, the world’s most populous nation, according to GFW. 2022 was the fourth most devastating year for primary forests in two decades.
“Since the turn of the century, we have seen a hemorrhage in some of the world’s most important forest ecosystems, despite years of efforts to reverse that trend.Weisse warned.
(Antioquia, the one that produces the most greenhouse gases).
Globally, vegetation and soil have regularly absorbed about 30%
of CO2 pollution since 1960, but these emissions have increased in
half.
“Halting and reversing forest loss is one of the most cost-effective mitigation options available to us today.“, said Frances Seymour, WRI Senior Research Fellow on Forests.
The Comptroller’s Office put its magnifying glass on the Development Plan of Colombia, which set a goal of reducing deforestation by 30%.
The situation in Democratic Republic of Congo, one of the poorest countries on the planet, illustrates the complexity of the struggle. The main drivers of deforestation are subsistence agriculture and small-scale charcoal production.
(Activity of the Nevado del Ruiz volcano changed from orange to yellow.)
More than 80% of the population does not have access to electricity supply. The government has recently auctioned exploration permits for Petroleum and gasand has indicated that it would lift a moratorium on new logging concessions.
In the list of the ten countries that have lost the most forests are also Indonesia (5%), Peru (3.9%), Colombia (3.1%), Laos (23%), Cameroon (1.9%), Papua New Guinea (1.8%) and Malaysia (1.7%). The rest of the world combined accounted for just under 15% of the forests lost in 2022.
AFP
