Calay News
A study published on Tuesday reveals that the Earth lost an area of virgin rainforest equivalent to a soccer field every 5 seconds in 2022, and more than 50% of this destruction occurred in Brazil and Bolivia. The total area affected, which includes burned and logged areas, exceeds 41,000 km2, equivalent to the area of Switzerland or the Netherlands.
The report, prepared by the World Resources Institute (WRI) using satellite images, highlights the situation in the Amazon basin in particular. In Brazil, losses accounted for 43% of the total, while in Bolivia they were 9%. In addition, the Democratic Republic of the Congo experienced a loss of 13%. In the case of Brazil, deforestation increased by 15% in 2022 compared to the previous year.
The conservative government of Jair Bolsonaro has been heavily criticized in the last four years for its environmental policies, and his successor, the leftist Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, promised that the defense of the Amazon would be one of his main objectives.
It is argued that much of the deforestation occurs on private land, and advocates of economic development in Brazil claim that this is necessary. However, scientists warn that if the Amazon basin becomes a treeless savannah, the consequences for the planet are unknown. The Amazon harbors about 90,000 tons of CO2 in its forests, which is equivalent to twice the global annual emissions.
In Bolivia, the loss of rainforest was approximately 4,000 km2, an increase of 32% compared to 2021. According to the report, most of this loss occurred in protected areas that cover the last regions of primary forest in the country. Cocoa production, gold mining, and fires were the main factors behind deforestation.
The WRI report highlights the importance of halting and reversing forest loss, as forests play a crucial role in climate change mitigation, biodiversity protection, and the livelihoods of millions of people. However, recent decades have seen an alarming degradation of the world’s most important forest ecosystems, threatening these benefits.
