The destruction of the world’s forests reached the highest level ever recorded in 2024, driven by an increase in fires caused by global heating, according to new “frightening” data.
From the Brazilian Amazon to the Siberian Taiga, the forests of the earth disappeared at a record rate last year, losing an area the size of Italy to agriculture, fires, forestry and mining, according to the analysis of the University of Maryland organized on Global Forest Watch.
In tropical regions, housing the most biodiversity and more carbon forests on the planet, fire has become the main engine of loss since the start of world files. However, fire is not a natural part of tropical ecosystems. Boreal forests in Canada and Siberia continued to burn last year.
Professor Matt Hansen, co -director of the Glad Lab of the University of Maryland, who directed the analysis, described the new figures as “frightening”, while Elizabeth Goldman, co -director of Global Forest Watch, said that the update was “unlike all that we have seen in more than 20 years of data”.
In 2024, forestry loss in Brazil reached rates above any level recorded under the far-right president, Jair Bolsonaro, fueled by fire and the worst drought never recorded in the Amazon. The country has represented 42% of all primary tropical forest losses in the tropics, losing more than 25,000 km2 (10,000 square miles). Data differ from official Brazil statistics, which uses a different definition of deforestation that does not include fire.
In Bolivia, the loss of a forest previously intact continued to increase, ranking second behind Brazil for the overall loss for the first time, driven by drought, fires and government policies promoting agricultural expansion for soy, cattle and sugar cane. The loss of the primary forest of Bolivia has near Quintuple Since 2020, reaching more than 14,000 km2 (1.4 m hectares).
In the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Congo-Brazzaville, the loss of virgin tropical forests reached the highest levels recorded. The countries house the tropical forest of the Congo basin, the second largest in the world after the Amazon.
During the Cop26 Climate conference in Glasgow, more than 140 world leaders have committed to stop deforestation by the end of the decade, but less than four years later, the countries are off -track: forest loss must drop by 20% per year from the levels of 2024 to reach the objective by 2030.
“The signal in these data is particularly frightening,” said Hansen “the upward global temperatures make forests warmer and drier, and therefore, more likely to burn. Given human ignition, even distant tropical forests can burn uncontrolled.
“We have a lot of work to do to face such a widespread, destructive and growing fire dynamic.”
Goldman called record losses “a global red alert”.
She said: “(it is) a collective call for action for each country, each company and each person who cares about a habitable planet. Our economies, our communities, our health – none of this can survive without forests.”
Of the 20 countries with the largest virgin forest zones, 17 now lose trees at a faster rate than when the Glasgow 2021 agreement has been signed.
But despite the record loss, there were areas of hope. The loss of primary forest in Indonesia and Malaysia remained relatively low, the latter abandoning the top 10 for the first time.
Professor Peter Potapov, co -director of Maryland Glad Lab, said the world risked entering a new dangerous cycle.
“2024 was the worst year never recorded for the loss of fire forests, broke the record last year. If this trend continues, it could constantly transform critical natural areas and release large quantities of carbon – the intensification of climate change and fuel even more extreme fires.
“This is a dangerous feedback loop that we cannot afford to trigger more,” he said.
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