Tropical forest losses rise in 2022 despite pledge to end them
Reuters The world lost an area of old-growth tropical rainforest the size of Switzerland last year, as deforestation of the Brazilian Amazon continued unabated, a forest monitoring project report said on Tuesday. Global Forest Watch, which is backed by the non-profit World Resources Institute and draws on forest data collected by the University of Maryland, […]
God’s will or ecological disaster?: Mexico takes aim at Mennonite deforestation
CASSANDRA GARRISON, of Reuters, reports on growing calls for the Mexico’s Mennonite communities to adopt more sustainable farming practices…
Peru’s Indigenous tribes use tech tools to track Amazon deforestation
Bogota, ColombiaThomson Reuters Foundation Peruvian Indigenous groups equipped with remote sensing technology and satellite-based alerts have been helping to track and report forest loss in the Amazon as drug trafficking fuels deforestation, research published on Monday showed. Members of nearly 40 Indigenous communities in Peru’s northern border region of Loreto were trained to use smartphone […]
Global rainforest loss “relentless” in 2020, but South-East Asia offers hope
Kuala Lumpur, MalaysiaThomson Reuters Foundation Tropical forest losses hit their third-highest level in almost two decades last year, despite improved conservation in parts of South-East Asia, researchers said on Wednesday, warning of rising deforestation risks as nations restart pandemic-hit economies. The loss in 2020 of 4.2 million hectares of primary forest – intact areas of […]
Pandemic likely made 2020 “another devastating year” for world’s forests
Kuala Lumpur, MalaysiaThomson Reuters Foundation The rate of destruction of the world’s tropical forests is likely to have gathered pace last year, green groups warned, as the pandemic weakened environmental regulations, cut funding for protection work and forced city migrants back to rural areas. In 2019, tropical rainforests disappeared at a rate of one football pitch […]
Satellite alerts seen helping fight deforestation in Africa
London, UKThomson Reuters Foundation A system using satellite data to send free alerts when trees are destroyed has been linked to a significant drop in forest losses in Africa, researchers and academics said on Monday. Deforestation dropped by an average of 18 per cent across nine central African countries after the alerts were introduced, found […]
No let-up in global rainforest loss as coronavirus brings new danger
Kuala Lumpur, MalaysiaThomson Reuters Foundation Tropical rainforests disappeared at a rate of one football pitch every six seconds last year, researchers said on Tuesday, urging countries to include forest protection in post-pandemic plans. The loss in 2019 of 3.8 million hectares of tropical primary forest – which means intact areas of old-growth trees – was […]
Tree planting extends an olive branch across the climate divide
New York CityThomson Reuters Foundation The world’s business and government leaders may have found a way to fight climate change without having to call global warming by its name or agree on what is causing it. Last week, the World Economic Forum – which dedicated its 2020 gathering in Davos, Switzerland, to climate change and […]
Quick facts – Five global deforestation hotspots as Brazil reveals Amazon spike
London, UKThomson Reuters Foundation A sharp rise in deforestation in Brazil’s Amazon rainforest drew global concern this week, spotlighting the environmental impact of the loss of huge swathes of forest around the world. The world lost 12 million hectares of tropical tree cover – equal to 30 football pitches a minute – last year, researchers […]
World’s forests “in emergency room” after years of losses
LondonThomson Reuters Foundation The world lost 12 million hectares of tropical tree cover last year – the equivalent of 30 football pitches a minute – researchers said on Thursday, warning the planet’s health was at stake. It was the fourth highest annual decline since records began in 2001, according to new data from Global Forest […]