Records for forests in 2024 – The role of climate change

The fires that are increasing Due to climate change increased in a new record the losses forestry In 2024, the warmest year ever recorded.

Only the losses of virgin tropical forests reached 67 million acres last year – extension as much as half Greece – increased by 80% compared to 2023.

The main reason was Brazil’s inability to face fires in the Amazon amid the worst drought recorded in the world’s largest forest.

For the first time, the annual report issued by the World Resource Institute and the University of Maryland finds that fires were the main cause of the destruction of tropical forests, an ominous development for these wet ecosystems that are supposed to be burned.

« The signals we read in the data are scary, » Matthew Hansen, a co -director of the Maryland Laboratory, told Reuters. « What we are afraid is that the effect of climate change will overcome our potential to react effectively. »

The blow was particularly heavy in Latin America, with the Amazon recording the biggest losses since 2016.

Brazil, which corresponds to the largest share of the planet’s tropical forests, lost 28 million acres, more than any other country. The evolution reversed the progress made in 2023, when President Luis Inasio Lula da Silva took office with the promise of protecting the Amazon.

« It was unprecedented, which means that we have to adapt our policy to a new reality, » said Andre Lima, head of the recovery control policies at the Brazilian Ministry of Environment.

As he said, the fires, which were never the leading cause of forest losses, are now a key priority of the government.

Bolivia surpassed the People’s Republic of Congo last year as a second country in the loss of tropical forests, although it is half an extent compared to the African country, where the fires have also expanded.

Losses in Bolivia increased in 2024 by 200%, with the main causes of drought, fires and a program of expanding cultivated areas with the incentives offered by the government.

In Congo Congo and Colombia, conflicts increased the decay, as armed groups exhausted natural resources.

Loss records were recorded not only in the tropics but also in the northernmost forests, which have evolved to withstand the fires better. Canada lost 52 million acres and Russia so much more.

In contrast to the global trend, Southeast Asia has recorded a decline in losses, which has reached double -digit rates in Malaysia, Laos and Indonesia, in part, thanks to policies of restricting crops.

Brazil is due to host the next UN session for climate change in November. As Rod Taylor, director of the Department of Forests at the World Resource Institute, pointed out, will be a good opportunity for the international community to fund protection measures.

« Right now, » he said, « it is more profitable to cut the trees than to let them stand. »