A report from the World Resources Institute tells us that deforestation has increased: +10% compared to 2021.
Imagine a football pitch being destroyed every five seconds, day or night. That’s more than four million hectares of rainforest razed from the map in the space of a year. It is the analysis of satellite data which makes it possible to affirm this, according to the report of the World Resources Institute for the year 2022. It is the equivalent of Switzerland or the Netherlands, wooded areas which are nevertheless crucial for the planet and which have been burned, slaughtered at breakneck speeds.
Several countries are affected by this deforestation. First up is Brazil. Its destroyed area represents 43% of global losses, far ahead of Congo (13%), followed by Bolivia (9%).
The reasons for this massive and very often illegal deforestation, we know them, is livestock farming, gold panning or agriculture, more particularly the production of cocoa in Bolivia, of coal in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Also in question, the absence or contempt of environmental policies in Brazil, where the situation has worsened under Bolsonaro. It has been improving since Lula’s return to power. He promises to end the destruction of the Amazon by 2030 – to see if this is confirmed over time.
Very bad news for the climate
Primary forests, untouched by any human activity, are essential. Firstly because they have the ability to regenerate naturally and above all because they are powerful CO2 vacuum cleaners. In fact, they limit climate change, provided we stop destroying them, of course. That’s what Indonesia is trying to do. She does it with difficulty, slowly, but it works. The archipelago has divided by four the extent of its felled areas since 2016.
Europe, responsible for 10% of global deforestation because of the products it imports, soya, meat, palm oil, is also trying to limit this ecocide. Last month, it definitively adopted a regulation to put an end to the marketing of certain products resulting from deforestation. This text will come into force on Thursday, June 29.