In 2024, the destruction of tropical forests reached the highest level since 2002. According to the new study of the Institute of the World Institute of Resources (WRI) and the University of Maryland, 6.7 million hectares of forests were destroyed per year, the region, comparable with Panama. According to scientists, last year, a tropical forest of 18 football fields disappeared every minute.
According to the director of WRI, Elizabeth Goldman, we did not observe this scale of destruction of tropical forests.
The main reason for the disaster was fire – half of the whole forest burned out. Brazil was most affected: the country lost 2.8 million hectares of forest, two -thirds of them as a result of a fire. Bolivia, the neighbor of Brazil, took second place, tripling the level of losses compared to the previous year. Experts say that fires are most often deliberately organized – for cleaning zones under soy fields and pastures.
The consequences for the climate are amazing: forest fires produced 3.1 billion tons Co₂ – more than all Indian energies are thrown out during the year. Only in Indonesia and Malaysia there were small improvements in the protection of forests.
The question of preserving the forest will be the key to the COP30 climate summit, which will be held in November this year in Brazil.
Source: Racurs
I am David Wyatt, a professional writer and journalist for Buna Times. I specialize in the world section of news coverage, where I bring to light stories and issues that affect us globally. As a graduate of Journalism, I have always had the passion to spread knowledge through writing.