Indonesia has for the first time surpassed Brazil in clearing tropical forests and losses are accelerating despite a 2011 moratorium meant to protect wildlife and combat climate change, scientists said.
Indonesia’s losses of virgin forests totaled 60,000 square kilometers — an area almost as big as Ireland — from 2000 to 2012, partly to make way for palm oil plantations and other farms, a study said, and the pace of losses has increased.
“By 2012, annual primary forest loss in Indonesia was estimated to be higher than in Brazil,” where clearance of the Amazon basin has usually accounted for the biggest losses, the scientists wrote in the journal Nature Climate Change.
Phoot: EPA
照片:歐新社
Deforestation in Indonesia in 2012 alone was 8,400 square kilometers versus 4,600 square kilometers in Brazil, which has managed to reduce losses in recent years, it said.
Indonesia imposed a moratorium on forest clearance in 2011, partly to slow losses that are ruining habitats of orangutans, Sumatran tigers and other wildlife. “It seems that the moratorium has not had its intended effect,” the scientists wrote.
Trees absorb carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas blamed for causing global warming, as they grow and release it when they are burnt or rot. By UN estimates, deforestation may accounts for 17 percent of all human-generated greenhouse gases.
Photo: Reuters
照片:路透
(Reuters)
印尼在除伐熱帶雨林的面積上首度超越巴西,而且林地消失的速度加快,儘管二0一一年其為保護野生動物及對抗氣候變遷,曾暫時禁伐,科學家指出。
印尼從二000年至二0一二年消失的原始森林,共達六萬平方公里,幾乎是一個愛爾蘭大,部分原因是為了開闢棕櫚油莊園及其他農場,研究指出。而且消失的速度加劇。
「到二0一二年,印尼每年消失的原生林估計將超過巴西。」巴西亞馬遜雨林的除伐常導致(全球)最大的森林消失,科學家在「自然氣候變遷」期刊上寫道。
印尼的森林除伐光是二0一二年就達八千四百平方公里,相較之下,巴西為四千六百平方公里,近幾年來,巴西成功減緩森林消失,該文指出。
印尼曾在二0一一年實施暫時禁伐令,部分原因是為了減緩森林消失,以免紅毛猩猩、蘇門答臘虎以及其他野生動物的棲地遭摧毀。「暫時禁伐似乎並未達到預期效果」,科學家寫道。
樹木生長時會吸收二氧化碳,在焚燒或腐朽時釋出二氧化碳,該氣體是造成全球暖化的主要溫室氣體。聯合國估計,森林除伐可能佔所有人為溫室氣體排放的百分之十七。
(路透/翻譯:魏國金)
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