Last year, approximately 3.7 million hectares (37,000 square kilometers) of tropical jungle were destroyed worldwide. By 2023, trees the size of ten football fields were disappearing every minute.
Yet this is about 400,000 hectares less than in 2022, the World Resources Institute (WRI) in Washington announced.
“The world has taken two steps forward and two steps back when it comes to last year’s forest losses,” said Mikaela Weisse of the environmental group Global Forest Watch, according to a statement. 3.7 million hectares in 2023 – the number is almost identical to the forest loss in 2019 and 2021. Over the past twenty years, the world has lost three to four million hectares of tropical forest every year.
Colombia has halved forest loss
In Brazil, loss has decreased significantly in 2023, but is still the country with the greatest forest loss, according to the report. Colombia has almost halved its forest loss compared to the previous year.
Forests disappeared in Congo, Bolivia and Indonesia
“Sharp declines in the Brazilian Amazon and Colombia show that progress is possible,” Weisse said. “But increasing forest loss in other areas has largely offset this progress.” Forests have declined sharply, especially in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Bolivia and Indonesia.
With a view to global development – also outside the tropics – Canada features surprisingly prominently. Forest loss there was three times higher than in other recorded years. The reason: in 2023, five times more trees were destroyed by fires than in the previous year.
Source: Krone
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