The destruction of tropical forests reached a record level in 2024 – Liberation
A record level for at least two decades. Last year, Tropical regions have lost 6.7 million hectares Primary forest, according to a report published this Wednesday, May 21 by the Global Forest Watch observatory. The area is almost equivalent to that of Panama and corresponds to the destruction of 18 football fields per minute. A sad record due to fires fueled by climate change and a deforestation that increases again in Brazil.
These results have been at the highest since the start of data collection in 2002 by the Global Forest Watch reference observatory, drawn up by the American reflection group World Resources Institute (WRI) with the University of Maryland. The figure is up 80 % compared to 2023, Elizabeth Goldman underlined, co -director of the observatory.
The fires are responsible for almost half of these losses, ahead of agriculture for the first time. These destruction represented the equivalent of 3.1 billion tonnes of CO2 emitted in the atmosphere, a little more than the emissions related to the energy of India. « This level of forest destruction is completely unprecedented in more than twenty years of data », underlined Elizabeth Goldman who warned that it was a« A global red alert ».
The report focuses on tropical forests, the most threatened, and very important for biodiversity and their ability to absorb air carbon. He includes losses for all reasons: voluntary deforestation but also accidental destruction and fire.
Fires were favored by « Extreme conditions » who made them « More intense and difficult to control »note the authors. The year 2024 was the warmest ever recorded in the world with the effect of climate change, caused by the massive combustion of fossil fuels and the natural phenomenon El Niño.
If the fires can have a natural origin, they are mostly caused by humans in tropical forests in order to clear land. Deforestation to specifically make room for agriculture, historically the leading cause of destruction, points to second place but remains a major cause. Brazil recorded 2.8 million hectares of primary forest destruction last year, including two thirds allocated to fires, often lit to make room for soy or cattle.
The country had however recorded good results in 2023forests benefiting from protective measures decided by President Lula, for the first year of his new mandate. « This progress is however threatened by the expansion of agriculture »notes Sarah Carter, researcher at the WRI. The Brazilian Amazon has been the most concerned, with destruction at the highest level since 2016.
WRI figures contrast with those of the Brazilian surveillance network Mapbiomas published on May 16, which report Net decline in deforestation But do not include fires. Forest protection is prominently the priorities of the Brazilian Presidency of COP30, the major UN annual climate conference, scheduled for Belem (November 10-21).
A neighboring country, Bolivia, occupies the second step of the podium, with a tripling of the areas destroyed last year, again under the effect of giant fires. Most « Are on to clear land for the benefit of industrial size farms »note the authors. The results are mixed elsewhere, with an improvement in Indonesia or Malaysia but a clear degradation in the Congo or in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The pressure on the forests comes historically from the exploitation of four products, nicknamed the « Big Four » : palm, soy, beef and wood oil. But improvement in certain sectors – such as palm oil – has coincided with the emergence of new problems, with for example lawyers in Mexico, or coffee and cocoa.
Thus the causes of deforestation will not necessarily remain « Always the same »insists Rod Taylor, director of the WRI forests program, pleading for a global approach. « We are also witnessing a new phenomenon related to the mining industry and critical metals »he warns.
