Deforestation continued last year at a rate far beyond pledges to end the practice by 2030, according to a major study published yesterday.
Forests nearly the size of Ireland were lost last year, according to two dozen research organizations, non-governmental organizations and advocacy groups, with 6.37 million hectares of trees felled and burned. This “significantly exceeded” levels that would have kept the world on track to eliminate deforestation by the end of the decade, a commitment made in 2021 by more than 140 leaders.
Forests are home to 80 percent of the world’s terrestrial plant and animal species, and crucial for regulating water cycles and sequestering carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas responsible for global warming.
Photo: AFP
“Globally, deforestation has gotten worse, not better, since the beginning of the decade,” said Ivan Palmegiani, a biodiversity and land use consultant at Climate Focus and lead author of the “Forest Declaration Assessment” report.
“We’re only six years away from a critical global deadline to end deforestation, and forests continue to be chopped down, degraded, and set ablaze at alarming rates,” he said.
Last year, 3.7 million hectares of tropical primary forest — particularly carbon rich and ecologically biodiverse environments — disappeared, a figure that should have fallen significantly to meet the 2030 objective.
In high-risk regions, researchers pointed to backsliding in Bolivia and Indonesia. The report said there was an “alarming rise” in deforestation in Bolivia, which jumped 351 percent between 2015 and last year.
The “trend shows no sign of abating,” it added, with forests largely cleared for agriculture, notably for soya, but also beef and sugar.
In Indonesia, deforestation slumped between 2020 and 2022, but started rising sharply last year.
Ironically, that is partly down to demand for materials often seen as eco-friendly, such as viscose for clothing, and a surge in nickel mining for electric vehicle batteries and renewable energy technologies.
There was better news from Brazil.
While it remains the nation with the highest deforestation rates in the world, it has made key progress. The situation has significantly improved in the Amazon, which has benefited from protective measures put in place by Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
However, in the Cerrado, a key tropical savannah below the Amazon, deforestation has increased.
Erin Matson, senior consultant at Climate Focus and coauthor of the report, said “strong policies and strong enforcement” are needed.
“To meet global forest protection targets, we must make forest protection immune to political and economic whims,” she said.
The report comes in the wake of the European Commission’s proposal last week to postpone by a year (to the end of next year) its anti-deforestation law, despite protests from non-governmental organizations.
“We have to fundamentally rethink our relationship with consumption and our models of production to shift away from a reliance on overexploiting natural resources,” Matson said.
VAGUE: The criteria of the amnesty remain unclear, but it would cover political violence from 1999 to today, and those convicted of murder or drug trafficking would not qualify Venezuelan Acting President Delcy Rodriguez on Friday announced an amnesty bill that could lead to the release of hundreds of prisoners, including opposition leaders, journalists and human rights activists detained for political reasons. The measure had long been sought by the US-backed opposition. It is the latest concession Rodriguez has made since taking the reins of the country on Jan. 3 after the brazen seizure of then-Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro. Rodriguez told a gathering of justices, magistrates, ministers, military brass and other government leaders that the ruling party-controlled Venezuelan National Assembly would take up the bill with urgency. Rodriguez also announced the shutdown
Civil society leaders and members of a left-wing coalition yesterday filed impeachment complaints against Philippine Vice President Sara Duterte, restarting a process sidelined by the Supreme Court last year. Both cases accuse Duterte of misusing public funds during her term as education secretary, while one revives allegations that she threatened to assassinate former ally Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. The filings come on the same day that a committee in the House of Representatives was to begin hearings into impeachment complaints against Marcos, accused of corruption tied to a spiraling scandal over bogus flood control projects. Under the constitution, an impeachment by the
Exiled Tibetans began a unique global election yesterday for a government representing a homeland many have never seen, as part of a democratic exercise voters say carries great weight. From red-robed Buddhist monks in the snowy Himalayas, to political exiles in megacities across South Asia, to refugees in Australia, Europe and North America, voting takes place in 27 countries — but not China. “Elections ... show that the struggle for Tibet’s freedom and independence continues from generation to generation,” said candidate Gyaltsen Chokye, 33, who is based in the Indian hill-town of Dharamsala, headquarters of the government-in-exile, the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA). It
China executed 11 people linked to Myanmar criminal gangs, including “key members” of telecom scam operations, state media reported yesterday, as Beijing toughens its response to the sprawling, transnational industry. Fraud compounds where scammers lure Internet users into fake romantic relationships and cryptocurrency investments have flourished across Southeast Asia, including in Myanmar. Initially largely targeting Chinese speakers, the criminal groups behind the compounds have expanded operations into multiple languages to steal from victims around the world. Those conducting the scams are sometimes willing con artists, and other times trafficked foreign nationals forced to work. In the past few years, Beijing has stepped up cooperation
RSS